No Lokpal Bill, no vote: Kejriwal tells Congress

Lucknow: Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said if a strong Lokpal Bill was not passed in the Winter session of Parliament, the Uttar Pradesh voters would be appealed not to vote for Congress in the upcoming Assembly elections.

"The Prime Minister has written a letter to Anna Hazare that a strict Lokpal Bill will be tabled in the Winter session (of Parliament) and believing his assurance we will wait till then," Kejriwal said at a meeting here.

"If the bill is not passed in the Winter session, Anna Hazare will come to Uttar Pradesh and appeal to people not to vote in favour of Congress," he said.

Kejriwal said that Anna had announced on October 3 that he will embark on his Uttar Pradesh yatra from October 15. "But meanwhile, the PM wrote a letter and believing his assurance he has decided to undertake the yatra after the Winter session," he said.

Kejriwal said Team Anna has no rivalry or hatred towards the UPA or Congress. "Because they are at the Centre, we have to say that if the bill is not passed, people will not vote for Congress," he said.

"Once the bill is passed, we will take our protest back and people can vote any party," he added.

Kejriwal said that in his Jan Lokpal Bill Anna has mainly said two things, first that complaint should be disposed of in a time bound manner and if an officer is found guilty, he should be jailed and property seized.

Secondly, Anna has said all services should be provided within a time-frame otherwise Lokpal would deduct the salary of the officer concerned and pay it to the user as compensation.

"But Congress was not ready to accept these two things," he said.

He said Congress leaders, including Manish Tewari and Digvijay Singh have levelled personal allegations against Anna and added that people of Hisar Lok Sabha constituency have given a befitting reply.

He alleged that whether Congress, BSP, BJP or SP - all looted public money whenever they got opportunity. "There are scams in Mayawati government, there was corruption in Mulayam Singh government, a former CM belonging to BJP has been jailed in Karnataka recently and there is a list of scams during Congress regime," he said.

Kejriwal said if Mayawati government's corruption has to be checked, a strong Lokpal was needed. "Therefore, pressure has to be mounted on the Congress as the issue cannot be sorted out by any other party," he said.