Lucknow, Oct 2 (IANS) The citizen’s referendum launched by activist Anna Hazare’s supporters on Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary Sunday received huge response in all parts of Uttar Pradesh, including this state capital, an activist said.
A total of 95 percent of the people contacted by India Against Corruption (IAC) volunteers in Lucknow not only voted in favour of the Jan Lokpal bill, but have also declared that they will not vote for their local MP unless he pledges support for a stringent anti-graft law.
IAC’s local convenor Saurabh Upadhaya said: ‘Barring about 5 per cent of the people, everyone else was all set to oppose their local MPs in case they were not inclined to vote for the Jan Lokpal bill.’
‘As many as 32,000 referendum forms were distributed in different parts of Lucknow today with the sole 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’,’ he added.
A significant number of participants in the referendum were youths, who did not mince words while expressing their disgust with corruption.
The 25-day long exercise is part of the nation wide referendum across 40 cities, including nine in the state.
Besides, Lucknow, represented by Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Lalji Tandon, these included the constituencies of all other MPs who are members of the parliamentary standing committee scrutinising the bill.
They include Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli constituency, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s Amethi, BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi’s Varanasi, former BJP president Rajnath Singh’s Ghaziabad, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Mainpuri and BSP chief Mayawati’s Ambedkar Nagar.
The referendum responses will be sent to the standing committee that is expected to forward its recommendations to parliament.
