Paswan urges SP to support Lokpal bill in RS tomorrow

Seeking to build a consensus, LJP supremo Ram Vilas Paswan today urged Samajwadi Party to support the Lokpal bill in Rajya Sabha and ensure its passage even without debate tomorrow.
SP should support the Lokpal bill in Rajya Sabha and join other parties in ensuring its passage tomorrow even without discussion, Paswan told reporters after attending a three-day introspection camp on strengthening three-tier panchayati raj system in Bihar.
"It will be good if the Lokpal bill is debated by the members in Rajya Sabha tomorrow before being passed, but if, for some reason, a debate is not possible, then SP should join other parties in passing the anti-corruption legislation even without discussion," Paswan said, appealing to SP, which had created pandemonium in the Upper House after tabling of the Bill on Friday.

Regarding his party's stand, Paswan said LJP will support the Lokpal bill in its present format and seek its passage.
He slammed AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for opposing the Lokpal bill and said he deserves "condemnation for virulent stand" against the Bill at a time there appeared to be a consensus on it.
On Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's observations that he has learnt a lot from the way AAP had rallied the people for good governance, the LJP leader said he was entitled to his views, but there was nothing to learn from the new political outfit.

A number of leaders and outfits like Prafulla Kumar Mahanta-led AGP government in Assam and the Janata Party government at the Centre in 1970s had disintegrated after meteoric rise to power on anti-corruption agenda, he said, adding that Kejriwal was not a bigger leader than JP who had catalysed the anti-Congress forces on the corruption issue.

Paswan said he wished AAP would have got 36 seats in the recently-concluded Delhi assembly polls and not 28 that it managed to get so that everybody could have seen how it ran the government.
On the political situation emerging in Bihar after the impending release of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad from Ranchi jail on being granted bail by the Supreme Court, the LJP leader said the development will not only boost RJD workers' morale, but give a renewed hope to the RJD-LJP alliance in Bihar.
Paswan expressed optimism that Congress will join the RJD-LJP alliance going by the positive vibes of the its leadership, but no final decision has been taken.