By IANS,
New Delhi : Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare said Wednesday he will neither form a political party nor join one, formalizing his “separation” with his former team and with key associate Arvind Kejriwal over the issue.
Formalizing a split with his team and opposing the movement taking a political plunge, Anna said: “I will not go with any political party or form any political party.”
Anna said that he will not share a platform with any campaign of political party at the time of elections. “My way is not a political party,” Anna Hazare said.
“It is unfortunate that Team Anna has separated,” Anna said after a meeting with other social activists who were members of erstwhile ‘Team Anna’ to decide future course of action.
Anna told other social activists: “Do not use my photo or name for any political campaigning. Do whatever you can on your own basis.”
“The meeting was attended by Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan, Santosh Hegde, Manish Sisodia, Kumar Vishwas and a few other prominent social activists, Aswathi Muralidharan, India Against Corruption media coordinator, told IANS.
Anna Hazare Tuesday said he did not support the idea of anti-corruption movement taking a political plunge and told Arvind Kejriwal that he should not expect his support for all his candidates.
“He (Kejriwal) will go his way and I will go mine. I have always stated that I don’t want to form a political party and contest elections. My path is different,” Hazare has said Tuesday in Pune.
The social activist’s declaration that he would neither contest elections nor form a political party effectively threw cold water on a “referendum” by IAC, the results of which were released Monday.
According to IAC, its week-long survey attracted 737,041 respondents, of whom 561,701 (76 percent) favoured a political party while the rest were against the idea.