Thaindian News

Lucknow, Nov 5 (IANS) Activists of India Against Corruption (IAC), headed by Anna Hazare, Saturday claimed “massive support” for the Jan Lokpal bill in Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary constituency Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.

Announcing the results of a referendum conducted in Rae Bareli district to assess public perception on the draft anti-graft bill, IAC activists claimed 99.5 percent of people supported it.

“These people are of the opinion that they would not support Sonia Gandhi or her party in the upcoming polls if the Congress-led government failed to pass the Jan Lokpal bill in the winter session of the parliament,” IAC co-ordinator Archana Srivastava told reporters in Rae Bareli, some 80 km from Lucknow.

“Just five percent of the people were of the view that they would continue to support Sonia Gandhi and her party even if the Jan Lokpal bill is not passed during the winter session of parliament,” she added.

According to IAC activists, the referendum was conducted from Oct 2 to Nov 4 in rural and urban areas of Rae Bareli.

As many as 140,000 referendum forms with a question - Whether you will vote for MP Sonia Gandhi or her party if she or the Congress opposes the Jan Lokpal bill? - were distributed in Rae Bareli.

“Of the 140,000 forms, we received over 107,110 forms till Nov 4, out of which over 106,900 forms were in support of Anna Hazare,” claimed Srivastava.

She said the IAC’s Rae Bareli unit was in possession of the records like address, occupation and other information of all those who participated in the referendum.

“We have all the records that can be presented before any outfit or an individual doubting the results of the referendum,” said Srivastava.