New Delhi, May 22 (Agencies): Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kiran Bedi, a former Indian Police Service officer, has been appointed the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, a post that had been the additional charge of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands' Lt. Governor for nearly two years.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said “the President has been pleased to appoint Ms Kiran Bedi to be the Lt. Governor of Puducherry with effect from the date she assumes charges of her office.”
Bedi's appointment comes three days after an alliance of the Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam won 17 seats in the 30-member state Puducherry Assembly. The All-India Anna DMK, which contested the elections on its own, won four seats while BJP did not get a single seat.
The LG's post in Puducherry, a Union territory, had been vacant since July 12, 2014, when the Narendra Modi government sacked the incumbent, Virendra Kataria, who had been appointed by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
Bedi, 66, said "I am grateful for the government's decision. They trusted me." Lt. General Ajay Singh, a retired army officer, had been holding additional charge of Puducherry.
Bedi, the country's first woman IPS officer, had led the BJP campaign for the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections without any success. She got a drubbing in her maiden political innings, with Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party winning 67 of the 70 seats.
An IPS officer of 1972 batch, Bedi had sought voluntary retirement from the service in 2007. She was then posted as Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development.
A sports lover and an author, Bedi is a recipient of Ramon Magsaysay Award as well as UN Medal for outstanding service. She was one of the pioneers of anti-corruption crusade in 2011 along with Anna Hazare and Kejriwal against the then UPA government.
She also earned a law degree at Delhi University in 1988 and a PhD from IIT Delhi's Department of Social Sciences in 1993.
Bedi said she was part of the Union Territory(UT) cadre in the IPS and she always longed to go to Puducherry.
“I was posted at Mizoram, Goa, Chandigarh, but I missed out Andamans and Pondicherry. It is a wonderful opportunity. It's a part of my own cadre,” she said.
