This Article is From Aug 14, 2012

Baba Ramdev could hit Congress in elections, says Justice Santosh Hegde

Baba Ramdev could hit Congress in elections, says Justice Santosh Hegde
Bangalore: Former Karnataka Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde, who was closely associated with now disbanded Team Anna, feels yoga guru Baba Ramdev's agitation on black money and graft issues may re-energise the anti-corruption movement. He also believed it could cause electoral damage to the Congress.

"There seems to be a lot of ground support for Ramdev, which would have jolted the ruling party (Congress) as he specifically identified the ruling party as a cause for all the lack of action on corruption and black money issue, " the former Supreme Court Judge told PTI.

He also saw "political balancing" at play vis-a-vis support to the movement by NDA constituents and unattached parties.

"The fact that our political leaders who are otherwise averse to anti-corruption movement came together, indicates there is some political balancing. Otherwise, they would not have come to the podium and shared the dais with Baba Ramdev," Mr Hegde said.

Noting the support of Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP), Mayawati (BSP) and Nitish Kumar (JD-U) to the movement, he said, "It looks as if Ramdev has a lot of support in that area...Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana. It was a massive crowd."

Mr Hegde, a key member of Team Anna which was recently disbanded by Anna Hazare, also slammed the Congress on the black money issue.

"If the government should go to the extent of keeping the names and account holders' identity (vis-a-vis black-money slashed abroad) a secret, it must be having some very strong reason for that," he said.

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