Kiran Bedi vs Arvind Kejriwal: Many similarities, fight between 'iron lady' & 'I-run man'!

New Delhi: No recent election in India has generated so much public interest and endless debates like Delhi Assembly election. Both the chief ministerial candidates - Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Kiran Bedi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - have many things in common.

Both are Magsasay Award winners for public service. Kiran Bedi got it for her Tihar jail reforms and Kejriwal for the Right to Information (RTI) movement. Never in the past, had two winners of a prestigious international award dubbed as 'Asia's Nobel Award' come face to face in an election arena.

Two Magsaysay awardees are now fighting it out for the chief minister's chair of Delhi. If Kejriwal loses and Bedi wins, Delhi will have the rare distinction of having two Magsaysay awardees as its chief minister. That too one preceded by another!

The similarities won't stop just at the Magsaysay award. Both Bedi and Kejriwal sat for the coveted Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams and cleared it. Bedi made it to the Indian Police Service (IPS) and Kejriwal made it to the less privileged Indian Revenue Service (IRS). Bedi was transferred 22 times in 35 years. Kejriwal was never transferred.

Both Bedi and Kejriwal opted for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), though for different reasons.

Both of them captured the attention of the nation during Anna Hazare led Indian Against Corruption (IAC) movement. Bedi and Kejriwal were considered two strong pillars of the movement and they were leading the movement till they parted ways, when Kejriwal formed his political party AAP in October 2012.

Social media has been poking fun at both Bedi and Kejriwal ever since the BJP declared the former as its official CM candidate.

A tweet calls it a fight between 'IRON LADY' and 'I-RUN MAN'!

Another tweet describes it as a contest between 'TOUGH WOMAN' and 'COUGH MAN'.

One more calls it a fight between 'DAROGA' versus 'BAGODA'.

A Facebook post describes it as a fight between a 'TRUE DISCIPLE OF ANNA HAZARE' and a 'FAKE DISCIPLE OF ANNA HAZARE'.

A more sober tweet calls it a fight between 'Ex-IPS and Ex-IRS'.

Only the voters of Delhi know who finally wins. But, social media frenzy over these two unique characters won't end at least till February 10, the day of Delhi Assembly election results.