Rashtriya Lok Dal supports Anna Hazare

LUCKNOW: The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has come in open support of Anna Hazare Jan Lokpal Bill. Speaking to reporters in Lucknow on Thursday, RLD president, Ajit Singh claimed that the opposition has been heavily against the bill which the UPA government seeks to table in Parliament.
It has been out stand from the very beginning that the present bill be withdrawn.We support the Jan Lokpal bill, Ajit Singh said.
Singh said that not all bills are referred to the standing committee. Likewise the Jan Lok Pal bill or a new bill may be brought directly before the Parliament, he said.
Supporting the indefinite fast staged by Anna Hazare, Ajit Singh said that its a constitutional right of a person to stage demonstration.
The RLD boss claimed that the issue of Lok Pal would further strengthen RLD in the state which goes to assembly polls due next year. The posturing comes amidst reports of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) giving farmers in Muzzafarnagar a call to march towards Ram Lila Maidan in support of Anna Hazare.
Slamming the Congress, Ajit Singh said that the party should have exercised restraint while declaring its list of candidates for the assembly elections. Earlier, Ajit Singh was left disappointed when Samajwadi Party (SP) declared its candidates without even consulting the RLD.
Singh, however, said that the doors were still open for political parties. This was in sharp deviation from his stand a day before in Merrut where he said that the RLD would be contesting elections on 150 seats on its own.
RLD functionaries however insisted that it is only on just over a dozen seats essentially in the western UP where RLD has decided to field its candidates along with the Congress.
Meanwhile, the RLD has decided to launch a gram swaraj yatra from September 1 to spread awareness about its principles amongst the rural masses.