By IANS,
Hyderabad : In a novel method to reach out to voters, bureaucrat-turned-politician Jayprakash Narayan Friday launched his election campaign by train.
With his message of “corruption free politics”, the president of Lok Satta party launched “whistle stop” tour from here.
The former officer of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and his supporters are travelling in a compartment of Secunderabad-Nellore Krishna Express, which will take them to 25 assembly constituencies in seven districts in a record 24 hours.
This is the first time that the leader of a political party has decided to campaign while travelling by train. JP, as he is known among his supporters, plans to cover the entire state by train in phases.
Addressing people at various railway stations, he said he wanted to bring a change in the politics, which is currently dominated by those with money and muscle power.
“There is a need to bring a change and to make politics free from corruption,” he said and alleged that for a few families politics had become a business and they were trying to control it with money power.
“I have undertaken this tour by the train to set a new landmark in the politics. Instead of using money power to mobilise people for big public meetings, we are going to them with our agenda,” he told reporters at Secunderabad railway station.
He promised to delegate powers to the local bodies and provide city-like facilities in the villages.
Narayan, who resigned from a key post in the bureaucracy in 1996 to launch a movement for democratic reforms called Lok Satta, turned it into a political party in 2006.
He assured the people that his party will not field a single candidate who has a criminal background and that it will not use money or liquor to woo the voters.
Narayan has already announced that he would contest from Kukatpally assembly constituency in the state capital.
The Lok Satta said it would field well educated and fresh faces with a clean image in the next month’s election to the assembly and the Lok Sabha.