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Anna sticks to no, Kejriwal goes ahead with plan

Everything seems ready, save the announcement. Anna Hazare aide Arvind Kejriwal will be going ahead to form a political party and given the candidates are clean, he would have Hazare’s support for them.

Updated on: Sep 09, 2012 12:30 AM IST
Hindustan Times | By , Pune
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Everything seems ready, save the announcement. Anna Hazare aide Arvind Kejriwal will be going ahead to form a political party and given the candidates are clean, he would have Hazare’s support for them.

HT Image
HT Image

But Hazare stuck to his stand that he would “neither form any political party nor contest any election”. His other aide, Kiran Bedi, is yet to come on board for the party.

Following a closed-door meeting with Hazare at Ralegan Siddhi on Saturday, Kejriwal declared some criterions and procedure for the selection of probable candidates. The probable candidates must have a clean record. Before contesting the elections, they will have to declare their income and list their properties and file an affidavit, promising that if elected, they would not use security, government bungalow or pension benefits.

But people would have the final word, by giving their opinions through a website. The exercise to seek opinion from the people would go on for a week and two conventions would be held on the subject -- one in Delhi and the other in South India. The Delhi convention will be held on September 17, Kejriwal said.

Admitting a difference of opinions between his aides, Hazare said, “We have been discussing the issue. We will seek referendum from the people on whether they want us to form a political party.”

He, however, added, “There is no harm in supporting candidates with clean character. I will campaign for the candidates if people want me to take that step”. Hazare said the move was aimed at sending good people to the Parliament.

Two months ago, Hazare had announced in Delhi that he would form a political party. But later, he changed his stand.

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