'Hisar by-polls a referendum on Lokpal, lesson for Cong'

With the Congress biting the dust in Hisar by-polls, Team Anna on Monday said the ruling party should take a lesson from the defeat and ensure passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill as the election was a "referendum" on it.

"It is a referendum on Jan Lokpal Bill. The Congress should take a lesson and now pass Jan Lokpal Bill," a Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal told PTI.

Haryana Janhit Congress chief Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party, won the Hisar by-polls defeating Indian National Lok Dal 's Ajay Chautala. Congress' Jai Prakash was in the third position.

"This is voters' verdict. Team Anna all along made the voters aware of the party position concerning the Lokpal Bill. It claims no credit for anything, for that was not the objective," another Team Anna member Kiran Bedi said.

"It only did what was a logical movement in order that such MPs reach parliament whose party presidents commit to support JLPB on the floor of the house. All others had given (in Hisar) except the Congress. And it was for voters to decide," she added.

Team Anna had campaigned against the Congress in Hisar after the party refused to give an undertaking that it will support Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament.

The decision to oppose Congress in the by-polls did not go down well with some sections as they argued that the team had earlier set winter session of Parliament as a deadline for the passage of the Bill.

Reflecting a rift within Team Anna Hazare, Justice Santosh Hegde has disapproved of the anti-Congress campaign by Kejriwal during Hisar bypolls, saying it was not the right thing to do and "we jumped the gun".