Parties ride the Anna wave

With the Punjab assembly polls around the corner, political parties are out to make the most of social activist Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement.

With the Punjab assembly polls around the corner, political parties are out to make the most of social activist Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement.

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Both the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) want Hazare and his team members to come to the state and campaign against the Congress.

In a counter-attack, Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh has threatened to expose “corrupt deeds” of the SAD-BJP alliance by presenting Hazare with a list of scams that surfaced during the present government’s tenure.

Social scientist Pramod Kumar observed that Hazare’s movement had changed the electoral discourse from levelling corruption allegations against each other to taking vows of fighting corruption. “The issue is not who is more corrupt, but who is more committed to fighting corruption,” Kumar said.

Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema, SAD secretary and spokesman, said Hazare had exposed corrupt practices of the Congress at the Centre, adding that rival parties would benefit in the coming elections. He said the SAD would try to bring the crusader to Punjab for campaigning against the Congress.

Amritsar MP and BJP’s star campaigner Navjot Singh Sidhu also agreed that Hazare was a key factor in the Punjab elections.