Kiran Bedi Appointed as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday appointed former IPS officer Kiran Bedi as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.

"I look forward to giving every bit of myself to the responsibility. I am there for the benefit of the country. I flow with time. I am here to give my best every day, each day. I am grateful for the government's decision. They trusted me," Bedi said.

AIADMK, which contested the elections on its own, won four seats while BJP could not get even a single seat.

Bedi, the first woman IPS officer, plunged into electoral politics joining the Bharatiya Janata Party as its chief ministerial candidate for 2015 Delhi Assembly elections but failed to create an impression in the national capital as her party faced the ignominy of not even winning 10% of the seats in the national capital.

The police officer-turned-activist-turned-politician wanted to replicate the Gujarat model of Governance in Delhi. Her five mantras for Delhi were "sanskari Dilli, saksham Dilli, sakshar Dilli, swastha Dilli and surakshit Dilli."

She had been a tennis player and had won inter-state national tennis championship for Delhi in 1978. In 1972, Bedi married fellow tennis player Brij Bedi.

Bedi had also set up various vocational and skills training development centres. As a social activist, she has also worked for the education of underprivileged children, youth and women.

She is also know as a Tihar jail reformist and has worked for the spiritual development of inmates and their children.

Bedi was born on June 9, 1949 in Amritsar in a Punjabi business family.

Since her school days, Bedi was an active member of National Cadet Corps (NCC) and used to participate in various extra-curricular activities.

Bedi graduated in 1968, with a BA (Honours) in English, from Government College for Women at Amritsar. The same year, she won the NCC Cadet Officer Award. In 1970, she obtained a Master's degree in political science from Punjab University, Chandigarh.

Bedi joined the Khalsa College for Women in Amritsar as a lecturer in 1970. She joined the Indian Police Service in 1972 becoming the first woman IPS officer of the country. After completing her training at the National Police Academy at Mount Abu, Rajasthan, she was posted as the Sub-Divisional Police Officer at the Chanakyapuri Police Station.