Hazare campaign will have no effect on UP elections: Jaiswal

KANPUR: Anna Hazare's agitation on Lokpal issue will have no impact on the UP assembly elections, Union Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal said here on Monday.

"Hazare's agitation will not have any impact on the results of the forthcoming UP assembly elections as Congress itself is very tough against corruption and has been campaigning against it," Jaiwal, who is UP assembly election in-charge of Congress, said.
However, the Coal Minister said that all those political parties "who are supporting Hazare's campaign just for getting political mileage will be cut down to size" in the polls due early next year.

"Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are against corruption and if it was not so then the government would not have enacted Right to Information Act. It was only due to RTI Act that so many scams came to light and people in top positions have lost their job and gone to jail," he said.

Jaiswal said they respect anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare and his campaign and appealed to his supporters to understand the constitutional limitations.

He asked Hazare to send his representatives to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice so that a "strong Lokpal bill can be made with mutual consent to wipe out corruption from the country".

When asked about demonstrations by Hazare's supporters outside the houses of MPs and in front of his own house here in the city, he said there was nothing wrong in it.

"Ours is a democratic country and we are the people's representative. Everyone is free to express one's feelings. We heard Anna's supporters and told them our party is against corruption," he said.