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Split in Team Anna as two core committee members quit
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Split-in-Team-Anna-as-two-core-committee-members-quit/articleshow/10403272.cms
LUCKNOW: Fresh crisis erupted in Team Anna when two prominent members -- PV
Rajagopal and Rajinder Singh -- quit its core committee on Tuesday objecting to
the movement taking a "political turn" and claimed that it was mired in
confusion.
Reacting to the resignations of Rajendra Singh and PB Rajgopal from the core
committee of Indian Against Corruption over differences on campaigning against
Congress in Hisar by-elections, the other members of Team Anna on Tuesday
evening said that the Lokpal movement is important and not the individuals.
Singh told toi that he was out of country when some of Team Anna members
decided to campaign against Congress party in Hisar by-election. He said that
the moral authority of the movement was in its apolitical nature but some
members of the core committe took decision to oppose Congress in by-election
without consulting the entire group. He said that in his view taking stand
against or in favour of any poltical party is wrong. Rajgopal was not available
for comments but he is also said to have quit on similar grounds.
In reaction, another member of Team Anna core group Manish Sisodia denied
allegations that the decision was taken without consulting other members of the
committee. He said that Singh and Rajgopal had expressed desire to quit active
participation in the committee meetings because of their other engagements but
their accusation on Tuesday has come as a shock for me. Kumar Vishwas, also
core committee member, said that the cause is important and not inviduals. The
movement will carry on, he declared,
Sisodia, Vishwas along with Arvind Kejriwal and other Team Anna members are on
five day UP tour exhorting people to pressurise their MPs to vote in favour of
strong Lokpal in the winter session of Parliament. They reiterated that Anna
and its team is not against any party but is mounting pressure on the Congress
because it is in power at the centre and in a position to enact a strong Lokpal
institution which will check corruption of all the political parties in power
in different parts of the country, they said.
Sisodia did not rule out the possibility of a conspiracy to `divide' Team Anna.
"Some politicians have launched and organised effort to break our unity and
destabilise the movement. However, even if some people have resigned, the
movement will continue till the time ordinary people are taking part in it. We
have received tremendous support of people at all the places we have covered so
far in UP," he added. Kumar Vishwas said that there are personal differences
between members but we will not allow the movement to suffer.
Earlier, during the day, while addressing a gathering in Kanpur, Anna's right
hand man Arvind Kejriwal said that people have defeated the ruling Congress in
by-elections at four places in the country because the party has been creating
hurdles in passing a strong Lokpal law. The people's verdict should be treated
as referendum in favour of strong Lokpal. After Kanpur, on their way to
Lucknow, the Team Anna visited Badarka village in Unnao, the birth place of
legendary freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad.
