Anna Hazare disbands team, election panel formed

Days after Anna Hazare promised the nation a `political alternative`, the veteran social activist announced on Monday that his team, popularly referred to as Team Anna, has been disbanded.

Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Days after Anna Hazare promised to provide a ‘political alternative’ to the nation; the veteran social activist announced on Monday that his team, popularly referred to as Team Anna, has been disbanded. However, he did not clearly specify whether they were going to immediately announce formation of a party though he talked about the procedures for setting up the alternative.
Writing in his blog, Anna Hazare said Team Anna was formed to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed, however now that it has been decided by the group not to engage with the government on the issue.
"The government is not ready to enact Jan Lokpal Bill. How long and how many times we will go on fast? Now people have asked us to leave fast and give an alternative. I also thought that the government is not going to curb corruption...,” he said.

"We are now stopping the activities of Team Anna today. Team Anna was formed to fight for Jan Lokpal. We have also decided not to have any more talks with the government. From today, there will be no Team Anna or Team Anna Core Committee," Anna added. Anna opined that Jantar Mantar is not the whole of the country and hence there is a need to seek the opinion of the people of India.

Importantly, a new ‘election committee’ has been set up to oversee the possible entry of the group into electoral politics. The members of the new panel are: Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan, Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Singh and Yogendra Yadav.

Team Anna had last week - on August 03- announced that it would join the political mainstream to continue its fight against corruption.
Anna Hazare had spelled out the contours of the political alternative and said that it would be a "movement" to put an end to the "Delhi-centric government" and take governance to the villages and the people. Since April last year, Team Anna has been on streets with Anna going on indefinite fast four times and one-day fasts also four times besides being part of a joint committee to draft the Lokpal Bill.