Samajwadi Party on Friday surprised all by vowing to stall the Lokpal bill, dug out and dusted by Congress with the opposition BJP deciding to back its passage. Raising the pitch against the bill, the UP outfit said it would support the no-confidence motion against the government for bringing the anti-graft watchdog in Parliament.
The SP veto surprised all when it was felt that AAP's stupendous show in Delhi elections has made political parties sensitive to corruption issues.
The sudden Congress decision to fast-track Lokpal is seen as an attempt to alter the perception about the central government after the decimation in assembly elections in which corruption was an issue. That Anna Hazare is also on protest for the bill seems another reason behind the new found sensitivity on Lokpal.
But away from the concerns of Congress and BJP, the Samajwadis are snug in their traditional stance, not worried to stand out as the only political outfit opposing Lokpal.
SP insiders argue that mainstream parties are sensitive to Lokpal despite reservati ons about the move because they are vulnerable to civil society pushing for the ombudsman. The Delhi elections in which AAP made a stirring debut has only deepened the fears. But they believe AAP and Hazare, voices seeking to target the opponents of Lokpal, cannot make headway on its turf of Uttar Pradesh.
The caste-based polarization and vast rural landscape are seen as firewalls against any initiative to start "new politics" like Arvind Kejriwal's success in painting the entire political class in Delhi elections as corrupt.
An unruffled Naresh Aggarwal said, "We welcome everyone to come to do politics in UP. It is a political state which has given maximum PMs. Let them come and see the state for themselves."
The unconventional politics has been part of the Samajwadi armour, having defied overwhelming pressure from a vast section of political class and intelligentsia to oppose women's reservation bill and promotion quota for dalits .
But the rigid stance from Mulayam Singh Yadav's flock on Lokpal seems surprising since Samajwadis don't lose anything if Lokpal becomes a reality at the Centre. Leaders attribute the party's stubbornness to an "ideological stance" that "political class cannot be investigated by a police inspector".
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