LUCKNOW: In a referendum conducted by Team Anna in eight parliamentary constituencies represented by political heavyweights in UP, an overwhelming 90% people have voted in favour of Anna Hazare's version of Lokpal Bill. The voters have also assured to vote out sitting MPs if they fail to support Anna's Bill in Parliament.
The referendum was conducted between October 2 and November 2 in parliamentary constituencies of Rae Bareli, Amethi, Varanasi and Ghaziabad, represented by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi and former BJP national president Rajnath Singh respectively.
The referendum also covered Mainpuri, the constituency of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Hamirpur represented by BSP leader Vijay Bahadur Singh, Ambedkarnagar represented by BSP leader Rakesh Pandey and Lucknow represented by BJP leader Lalji Tandon.
Bahadur and Pandey are also members of the parliamentary standing committee drafting the Lokpal Bill, which is expected to be placed in the winter session of Parliament.
To the question if they would vote for their MP if he/she votes against Anna's version of Lokpal Bill in Parliament, 99.5% of 1.06 lakh people in Rae Bareli said they will not vote for Sonia Gandhi if she opposed Anna's Lokpal Bill. Similarly, in Amethi 98.30% of 1.06 lakh people, in Mainpuri 91.85% of 1.07 lakh, in Ghaziabad over 90% of 1.05 lakh, in Lucknow over 95% of 1.15 lakh, in Varansi around 99% of 1.11 lakh, in Hamirpur 93% of 98,250, in Ambedkarnagar 97% of 1,05 lakh and in Kaushambi 99% of 1.01 lakh people voted in favour of Anna.
Interestingly, in Amethi 2,983 persons said they will vote for Rahul even if he does not support Anna's version of Lokpal Bill.
A Team Anna member Sanjay Singh told TOI that the referendum got huge public response.
"Referendum forms were distributed in cities as well as villages. Volunteers of India Against Corruption conducted the survey through a mass contact programme carried out in markets, panchayats, railway and bus stations, etc. People from all sections of the society, caste, gender and faith took part in the exercise. The participation of youth was overwhelming," he claimed.
He also claimed that a large section of the population, which included Muslims, is angry with Congress leaders, particularly party general secretary Digvijay Singh, for launching an organized campaign to discredit Anna and his team.
"Muslims said that Digvijay is wrong in thinking that he will be able to appease Muslims and divert public attention from the issue of corruption through his statements. Most of the people were of the view that corruption has hit dalits, backwards and Muslims the most as they belong to financially weaker sections of the society. They believe that benefit of welfare schemes never reaches the people at the bottom due to corruption," he added.
0 comments:
Post a Comment