Jan Lokpal Bill: Anna Hazare to stay put in Tihar Jail till Ramlila Maidan is fit for use, says Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Anna Hazare may not be able to start his protest in Ramlila Maidan on Thursday as the ground is not clean. Speaking to ET, the leading player of the movement, Arvind Kejriwal said Anna will leave Tihar only when the Ramlila ground is ready. He will not move anywhere else. He will move straight from the jail to the Ramlila Maidan.

Although Anna Hazare has accepted the police condition of fasting at Ramlila Ground for two weeks, he will stay put in the Tihar jail till MCD has made the ground fit for usage. After the relentless rains, the ground is apparently unusable and slushy. MCD is working to get this in order.

Given this, it seems unlikely that Anna would be at the ground at 3 pm, as was announced earlier.

In a late night breakthrough in the deadlock between Anna Hazare and Delhi police over the duration of his anti-corruption protest, the Gandhian accepted the offer for 14 days of hunger strike beginning today at the Ramlila Maidan.

The breakthrough came after a nearly 30-minute meeting Hazare aides Bedi, Prashant Bhushan, Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal had with Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta at the latter's residence in Chanakyapuri shortly after midnight.

Bedi said the Police Commissioner offered permission for 14 days of protest by 73-year-old Hazare at the Ramlila Ground, after which she, along with Bhushan, Sisodia and Kejriwal went back to the Tihar Jail, where the social activist has been staying put ever since her arrest and release yesterday, to apprise him of the offer.

Later, Bedi said on the micro-blogging site that Delhi Police "removed the unacceptable conditions and offered 15 days permission. Anna accepted there".

"Anna has won. We will get Jan Lokpal Bill", one of the protesters said.

The prime minister told parliament on Wednesday that Hazare's arrest had been justified by his refusal to accept the police restrictions on his planned fast.

The anti-corruption campaign has elevated Hazare into an enormously popular national figure.

His espousal of fasting as a form of protest, coupled with his trademark white cap and spectacles, have led to comparisons with his own professed hero, independence icon Mahatma Gandhi.