New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi will on Saturday meet Gandhian Anna Hazare and other representatives of civil society to discuss the Lokpal bill.
“The meeting between team Anna and Sonia Gandhi is confirmed for tomorrow (July 2),” Aswathi Muralidharan, a member of the NGO Parivartan which is canvassing support for the Lokpal bill, told IANS.
The meeting is scheduled for 4.30 p.m. It was earlier scheduled for June 30, but was cancelled.
Former top cop Kiran Bedi, who is part of the civil society team, on Friday tweeted that it was better that they will be meeting Gandhi Saturday, now that they have met the opposition parties and know their point of view.
“Meeting of team Anna with SG (Sonia Gandhi) at 4.30 p.m. Better, now that we could read BJP’s and other opposition parties’ mind,” Bedi said.
Team Anna has been meeting political party leaders to build a consensus on the bill drafted by the civil society. The team met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Friday.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Friday assured civil society activist Anna Hazare that it was in favour of a strong Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill and emphasised that members constituting the Lokpal should have impeccable credentials.
Hazare along with other civil society activists met senior BJP leaders at the party office here to talk about the differences with the government on the Lokpal Bill to counter corruption in public life.
“It was a fruitful dialogue,” Hazare told mediapersons after the meeting that lasted nearly 90 minutes.
BJP leaders LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh, Rajnath Singh, Ananth Kumar and Ravi Shankar Prasad were amongst those present at the meeting with Team Hazare, which included Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi.
The meeting came ahead of the July 3 all-party talks convened by the government on the Lokpal Bill.
Prasad said party leaders sought clarifications from Team Hazare on issues relating to the Bill. He said leaders of the BJP-led NDA leaders would meet on Saturday to discuss their stance. (IANS)