Don't blame us if Oppn benefits: Kejriwal

Maintaining that they are not campaigning for any party in the Hisar election, Arvind Kejriwal has said Team Anna should not be held responsible if their movement in any way benefits the opposition and dismissed as "absurd" talk of Hazare nursing an ambition to become President.

"We are fighting for systemic changes. We are not campaigning for anyone or asking voters to vote for a particular candidate. We are not responsible if opposition is benefited. It is the Congress which is responsible for this.

"If they make an announcement (about bringing the Jan Lok Pal Bill) today, we will withdraw our entire campaign against them," he told reporters here last evening.

Besides Kejriwal, who hails from Hisar in Haryana, other members of Team Anna including Kiran Bedi and Manish Sisodia addressed public gatherings asking people to refrain from voting for Congress for its "failure" to bring their Bill in Parliament.

Reacting to Congress leader Digvijay Singh's remarks that Hazare wants to become the President, Kejriwal said, "There is no truth in the claims that Anna wants to become President of India. This is completely absurd. Complete bunkum."

Kejriwal stressed that people of Hisar should not confine their choice to just two or three candidates in the fray, but choose from 39 other non-Congress candidates who are contesting.

To a question, Kejriwal said, "We will treat Hisar results as a referendum. Let us treat it as a referendum. We have made the Jan Lok Pal Bill an issue here.

"We are asking people to leave out Congress and from the rest 39 make your own assessment and pick up a candidate whom they think is clean. We are telling them to defeat Congress so that it is forced to bring the Jan Lok Pal Bill, which will ensure that corrupt leaders go to jail."

He also said that on their agenda was "right to reject" so that if people think none of the contesting candidates deserves their vote, they can press the "reject button."

Asked about the suggestion of some Congress leaders that he should contest the polls himself, Kejriwal asked, "Has the Congress abdicated its responsibility. Let them resign and then we will decide whether we need to fight or not."

He also lashed out at Digvijay Singh, saying it was a baseless charge that their movement had anything to do with any political party or the RSS and that Digvijay must provide evidence to back his claims.