Ex-colleagues can join stir, but no party politics: Anna Hazare

GUWAHATI: Social activist Anna Hazare has said his former colleagues can join his proposed agitation next year over Jan Lokpal and farmers' issues, but they must do so "sans party".

Hazare is touring the country's northeastern region to garner support for his nationwide anti corruption stir, which he refers to as 'satyagraha'. It has been for March 23, 2018.

"They can join the movement. However, they will have to sans party, which I am sure they will not do," Hazare said on Friday, when asked if he will allow his former colleagues to join the movement.

On Saturday, Hazare is scheduled to address a rally in Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh. He plans to tour Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Karnataka after that. The Gandhian's 'India Against Corruption' movement in 2011had received substantial support from the northeastern states.

Among Hazare's former colleagues is Delhi's chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, who had joined his movement as an RTI activist. He later parted ways with Hazare and formed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to contest the Delhi assembly polls in 2015.

Kiran Bedi, another colleague, joined the BJP and was chief ministerial candidate during the Delhi polls.