UP gives thumbs up to Anna's Jan Lokpal Bill

A citizen's referendum launched by team Anna Hazare on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary on Sunday has received huge response in all parts of Uttar Pradesh, including state capital Lucknow.

Ninety-five per cent of the people contacted by India Against Corruption volunteers in Lucknow not only voted in favour of the Jan Lokpal Bill, but have also declared that they would just not vote for their local MP unless he pledges support for the Bill.

According to IAC local convenor Saurabh Upadhaya, "Barring about 5 per cent of the people, everyone else was all set to oppose their local Member of Parliament in case they were not inclined to vote for the Jan Lokpal Bill."

He said, "As many as 32,000 referendum forms were distributed in different parts of Lucknow on Sunday with the question -- will you still vote for your MP if he/she does not support Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal Bill in Lok Sabha?" And the answer in most of the forms was a flat -- "No". 

A significant number of participants in the referendum were the youth, who did not mince words while expressing their disgust with corruption and the blatant reluctance of the entire political class in taking it head-on.

The 25-day-long exercise is a part of the nation wide referendum across 40 cities of which nine were in UP only. Besides, Lucknow, represented by BJP's Lalji Tandon, the constituencies included Congress president Sonia Gandhi's constituency, Rae Bareli, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's Amethi, BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi's Varanasi, former BJP president Raj Nath Singh's Ghaziabad, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav's Mainpuri, BSP chief Mayawati's Ambedkar Nagar, BSP MP Vijay Bahadur Singh's Hamirpur and SP leader Shailendra Kumar's Kaushambhi.

The referendum forms will be sent to the standing committee that is expected to forward its recommendation to Parliament.