'Pranab wasn't targeted because of his candidature for Prez'

Ahmedabad, Jun 29:

member Arvind Kejriwal today refuted the suggestion that

was named among the 15 "corrupt" ministers only because he became the UPA's Presidential candidate.

"We announced the list on May 26 and at that time Pranab Mukherjee's name was not decided at all," he said, addressing a press conference here. However, he reiterated the Team Anna's stance vis-a-vis Mukherjee, calling him "tainted".

"It is very sad that a person against whom not one but four serious charges of corruption were levelled is likely to be the next President of our country," Kejriwal said.

"There are allegations against our Prime Minster, we had submitted a list of corrupt Ministers in the Cabinet, 162 MPs from Lok Sabha and 39 from Rajya Sabha are corrupt, and now we will get a tainted President," he said.

Talking about the list of allegedly corrupt ministers which Team Anna had put out in May, Kejriwal said, "When we submitted the list, Congress President rejected it, terming it as baseless allegations. And Prime Minister had also rejected our demand. So once Pranab Mukherjee becomes the President, there won't be any inquiry against him."

"We have decided that if the PM does not accept our demand of SIT (to probe corruption allegations against the Ministers), we will start a nation-wide agitation from Jul 25. Myself, Manish Sisodiya and Gopal Roy will sit on a fast under Anna Hazare's guidance and lakhs of people across the nation will come out on the street," he said.

Kejriwal is here to support an agitation against allotment of community grazing land at Lavad village in Gandhinagar District for the Gujarat government's proposed Raksha Shakti University.

PTI