Lokpal Bill: Team Anna meets Sonia Gandhi, says talks productive

Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath resident in New Delhi on Saturday.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Hazare said the talks were fruitful and he discussed 15 issues concerning the Lokpal draft with Gandhi.

He also said that the correct draft of the Lokpal bill should be introduced in Parliament, otherwise he will go on fast from August 16.

"Proper draft of Lokpal Bill should go to Parliament, we will respect whatever Parliament decides," Hazare said.

Also present at the meeting were RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi and party leader Mohsina Kidwai.

Hazare had sought to meet Gandhi on Thursday but he could not as no appointment had been fixed. Hazare had said that he would try to persuade Gandhi to include the office of the prime minister in the Lokpal Bill.

"We will meet all parties. We will meet Sonia and tell her if the prime minister is saying so (that he was ready to come under the Lokpal ambit), then what is the problem," he had said.

Ahead of an all-party meeting to reach consensus over the matter, the civil society has been reaching out to political parties. On Friday, Hazare and his team met BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ananth Kumar and Jaswant Singh.

On Thursday, Hazare and his associates had met CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and RLD chief Ajit Singh to explain their position on the Lokpal Bill. Earlier, the civil society members had met Advani and CPI leader A.B. Bardhan over the issue.