'Team Anna's poll campaign will not have much impact in UP'

Allahabad, Jan 2: Lashing out at Team Anna for its anti-Congress propaganda, UPCC president Rita Bahuguna Joshi asserted that Anna Hazare's decision to campaign against the party in poll-bound states will not have much impact in Uttar Pradesh.

"I wish speedy recovery to Anna Hazare whom we consider an honourable social activist...it may not be out of place to say that Team Anna has lost its sense of direction and reduced its anti-corruption crusade to an anti-Congress propaganda," Joshi told reporters. This has resulted in a decline in its mass following which was seen during Hazare's fast in Mumbai, she said, adding that the proposed anti-Congress campaign will not have much impact in Uttar Pradesh.

"Voters will be giving a mandate against 22 years of misrule by successive non-Congress governments in Uttar Pradesh. They will punish parties like the BJP, the SP and the BSP which have been in power during this period. It is against this backdrop that we are likely to gain and hence Team Anna's campaign may fail to strike a chord with the people," she said. The entire nation is aware that the Congress-led UPA government got the Lokpal Bill passed in Lok Sabha. Things were different in Rajya Sabha and the Bill was stalled by the BJP-led NDA there, she said.

"But Team Anna chose to carry on rubbishing the Congress while making no attempt to persuade the BJP to cooperate in getting the Bill passed," Joshi added.