Team Anna will not be successful in launching political party: Hegde

Bangalore, Aug 11 (ANI): Former Lokayukta of Karnataka Justice Santosh Hegde today said that Team Anna does not have a pan India reach and will not be able to successfully launch a political party, as it would be difficult to find 543 candidates to contest Lok Sabha polls.

Hegde and other senior members of Team Anna like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are skeptic about the decision to take the political plunge and launch a party.

Anna Hazare himself had strong reservations about the move, so much so that hours before the August 3 announcement, he circulated a 1940 speech by Mahatma Gandhi entitled 'Aap abhi tayyar nahin hai' (You are not ready yet) to support his argument.

Refusing to be part of Team Anna's plans to form a political party and fight elections, Hegde said he was with them in the fight against corruption.

He said that Team Anna's reach is limited to certain pockets of India, and added that the team should the team should have built an atmosphere through an all-India tour, building a movement and then taking a decision forming a political party.

"I don't think Team Anna has a pan India presence. I don't think they will be able to successfully launch a political party and find 543 candidates to fight Lok Sabha election," Hegde said on Saturday.

Commenting on whether Anna was distancing himself from his team on the issue of taking political plunge, Hegde said, "I can only deduce from his blog that that may be the case because he asked some hard questions on where the candidates and the money would come from."

Other sources close to the social activist said that Hazare was even averse to considering a political option and forming a party considering he has spent a better part of his life fighting politicians and criticizing political parties. (ANI)