Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) Hundreds of Baba Ramdev supporters Tuesday vowed to kickstart a campaign against the Congress as they left Delhi for their homes after spending a day in detention at the Ambedkar Stadium.

Some said they would be visiting local colleges while others would tour villages in their respective states urging people not to vote for the Congress.

“We are a group of 60-70 youngsters and we will be going to colleges and universities and tell the students not to vote for the Congress,” Sahil Lakhanpal, 26, a businessman from Chandigarh, told IANS.

“I will be receiving e-mails from Patanjali Yog Samiti (Ramdev’s organisation) on the next phase of our movement,” he added.

Ramdev and his supporters were detained Monday while they were marching towards parliament and were shifted to the stadium in central Delhi, where they spent the night.

The yoga guru earlier ended his five-day fast against black money and corruption and attacked the Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for shielding the corrupt and said their movement would continue.

Ramdev said he would go to Haridwar, Uttarakhand, and appealed to all his supporters to peacefully leave for their homes.

Sundar Singh, 28, a supporter of the yoga guru, was miffed with the Congress-led government and accused it of deliberately ignoring hundreds of fasting people.

“Hundreds of people were on fast for five days along with baba… this Congress party is shameless and has no empathy. They did not even have the courtesy to respond to us,” said the farmer from Palwal, Haryana.

“As per Baba’s directions, I will be going to different villages and commence an anti-Congress campaign till the 2014 Lok Sabha elections… this party has to lose at any cost,” he said.

At Ramlila Maidan, the venue of the fast by the yoga guru and his supporters, around 300 people could be seen Tuesday. The carpets and mattresses at the marquee had been rolled and kept in a corner alongside huge piles of plastic chairs.

Two wooden stages built alongside the main stage were being brought down along with the tents and colourful posters.

Many of the supporters present at Ramlila Maidan were busy packing their bags or keeping a check on their friends’ luggage, who were on their way back from Ambedkar Stadium. Some of them ate puri sabzi served by volunteers.

The yoga guru had staged a similar protest at the same venue in June 2011. But a midnight crackdown by Delhi Police ended in bedlam, leaving a woman dead. Ramdev was then forced to leave Delhi.