Anna Hazare praising Mamata: Is there a plan of action?

What is veteran activist

upto? His open endorsement of West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC)

as the prime ministerial candidate has raised a few question marks. Why has Hazare decided to back Banerjee? Is it just an effort by Hazare to keep himself relevant in Indian politics after Arvind Kejriwal stole his show or is there something more developing behind the scenes?

Is Hazare playing a role in strengthening the non-Congress and non-Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) space in Indian politics? The man has been seen showering praise on BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the past and also Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was also a part of the NDA even a year ago.

Hazare's aides have backed Modi while the latter backed Hazare

Hazare's close aide Kiran Bedi also endorsed Modi as the prime ministerial candidate recently. Former army chief V K Singh, another close aide of Hazare, also shared the stage with Modi at one of his mega election rallies last year and is said to be backing the saffron leader. We have also heard Modi defending Hazare at one of his rallies in November last year and indirectly accused Hazare's former colleague Arvind Kejriwal of backstabbing him.

Anna Hazare had been seen praising NDA CMs in the past. Is there a hint?

In such a situation, is Hazare backing Banerjee just because she leads a simple life? The TMC, along with Team Anna, is working on an apolitical initiative called "Fight for India" which would be targetting approximately 90 million mobile phone-holders of the nation and the idea is to catch the young voters. Does this sound very original since we already have a massive campaigning machinery working on the grounds to push Modi's case among the youth of the nation ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

Targetting the youth: Something which also Modi does

It doesn't make much of a sense when Hazare says "Mamata at the helm will change the nation" or that the latter should be winning around 100 seats in the national elections. We all know what's Banerjee's track records as the administrator and there is little chance of this regional satrap winning 100 Lok Sabha seats. Yet, Hazare said these words to create a vote-friendly icon who has every possibility of joining an alternative coalition in the national politics.