Days after losing the Delhi Assembly elections to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, BJP candidate Kiran Bedi has written an open letter reflecting on her loss and taking responsibility for it.

Here is the unedited version of the letter, originally posted on her blog.

"Indian Democracy if it truly wants many well meaning people to stake their experience for mature and good governance, needs a civil culture and law abiding environment. ( I am being mild in saying this) Here is my tryst with electioneering.
Hope to see it change in my life time....
I opted for electoral politics not for position or power, but for serving the city which is home to me for the last over 40 years. A city which I have served in various capacities, through thick and thin.
I saw it through various challenges -- international sports events, VIP security, political upheavals, communal riots, agitations, and more.
On crime front, I saw it through when Delhi was hit by terror from outside. I spent years to catch a wink with boots on and with wireless blaring to get on the street any moment.

I did crime prevention, saving women from being raped in rural areas on dark nights by erstwhile criminal tribes with literally no cops on roles by involving village young men to patrol at night, while I was personally out five nights a week.
I conducted traffic management for Asian Games with hundreds of students doing traffic duties when my senior wanted to send me to Japan on a course, just to edge me out. Traffic was huge revenue for some.
Another time when a district assignment was ridden with bootlegging, I managed to dry it out and rehabilitate illicit liquor sellers to honourable living. I sent rag picking children to schools, which are now community colleges and many of the same children working as teachers. I even opened drug abuse treatment centres from police stations which were never heard of.
All this became a lifelong mission and will remain so.
I did it all not for any glory; I did it because the service and situations demanded it.

"I have failed the test and I take full responsibility for my decision. But inside me has not failed. I stepped into electoral politics because I wanted to give my city all I still had. I didn't want to die with a guilt that I was only commenting and never daring to pass the ultimate test of electoral politics." she wrote.

Bedi, who stood from the Krishna Nagar constituency, is being blamed for the defeat by several people, both from within the party and outside. Through her letter, the IPS officer talks about the loss, and what went wrong.