Arvind Kejriwal’s former associate has described the split in the anti-corruption movement as a victory for the Congress and said Kejriwal walked into a trap laid by that party.
According to former member of Team Anna and now associate of Baba Ramdev, Devinder Sharma the split is a victory for the Congress which always worked for it. He said the Congress also wanted them to form a party which would then eat into the Opposition votes and improve its own chances of victory.
So, Kejriwal merely walked into this trap, says Sharma.
He should go back to Anna and the movement as forming a party now would only help the Congress, says Sharma.
He says that right from the beginning it was known that Anna was sympathetic to the Congress. But the Congress also maintained a hot line with Kejriwal, and tried all means to create differences in them, besides pushing them away from Baba Ramdev, says Sharma.
He says that when the five Congress ministers came to receive Baba Ramdev at the airport and held talks at Claridges hotel, one of the demands made by Kapil Sibal was that Anna Hazare should not be allowed to come to the Baba’s stage. "If Baba comes talks fail, Sibal told us,’’ says Sharma.
"The very next day Arvind Kejriwal gave a list of conditions for us if we wanted Anna to share stage with the Baba. ‘’
Kapil Sibal also told us that he was talking to Arvind every day. This was confirmed later by Arvind to me, says Sharma.
Again in December when the crowds were thin in Mumbai, Baba offered to come and join the protests but Arvind did not allow it.
While first it was Sibal who was doing the manipulation, later it was Sandeep Dixit who was in touch with Arvind followed by Yogendra Yadav.
"You need time to build a party. If they form a party now, they would help the Congress which is what they want,’’ says Sharma.
He recalled that Kejriwal had said earlier that he would not have a party if Anna did not want it. He should stick to this position and not have a party now. Or the movement and the party both would be stillborn, says Sharma.
Party won't help Cong: Yogendra Yadav
Yogendra Yadav political analyst and now associate of the political alternative being formed by Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan said today that the exit of Anna Hazare from a future political option is a set back but at the same time it opens up new opportunities. He also denied the assumption being made that a new party by them would help the Congress.
"It is likely to disadvantage one party more than the other. Who the party will affect depends on who the ruling party is, and the nature of support of these parties. For example in Karnataka, Madhya Pradeshan anti corruption plank may hurt the BJP. But in Orissa it may not hurt the ruling party," Yadav said.
He said that the exit of Anna Hazare from a future political option is a set back. But at the same time it opens up new opportunities, he said.
Digvijay Singh the Congress general secretary had yesterday expressed happiness at the split in the Anna movement saying that he been saying from the beginning that Anna's integrity and brand name was being exploited by some very ambitious people. " I am happy that Anna has understood this and distanced himself from them," Singh said.
Salman Khursheed another Congress minister was recently accused of trying to engineer a divide between Anna and Kejriwal when he had secret talks with Anna and later reported it to Kejriwal thus creating suspicions.
