Shirdi, Maharashtra:
Anna Hazare will kick off an awareness campaign for a strong Lokayukta bill in Maharashtra from today. This to, raise support for a strong Lokayukta or ombudsman with the power to investigate complaints of corruption against politicians and bureaucrats at the centre and state level. During this campaign, Anna will meet presidents of all political parties in the state to push for a Lokayukta Bill.
Anna will be on the road for five weeks and is slated to start the tour from the temple town of Shirdi. Anna is known to start all his campaigns after visiting a religious place.
As of now seems that Anna will be travelling across the state alone as this is being perceived as his personal campaign for the state. In Shirdi, the absence of his team members Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal amongst others was noticeable. It is said that Anna's team members could be upset at his comments praising the chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena(MNS) and also by his comments on a joint campaign with yoga guru Baba Ramdev to bring back focus on the Jan Lokpal and the issue of black money.
As a precursor, Anna had visited Mumbai and met various bigwigs of the state like chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, Raj Thackeray, and Raj's estranged uncle, Bal Thackeray who heads the Shiv Sena.
The yatra culminates in Mumbai on June 2, after which Anna is slated to head to New Delhi for participating in the anti-corruption agitation organised by yoga guru Baba Ramdev.