Opposition to Lokpal cost Congress dearly: Team Anna

As the Congress suffered a major blow in the elections to five states, Team Anna member Kiran Bedi on Tuesday claimed that the opposition to an effective Lokpal cost the party dearly and took a dig at its top leaders.

In her tweets, Bedi said when the Congress started to use its power "to discredit" the anti-corruption movement, it put its own grassroot workers on the defensive.

"Congress appeared to be suffering today also because it was blatantly against an effective Lokpal bill. And still is," she said.

Hitting out at the Congress leadership, she said, "People need their political representatives to communicate with them and not read written speeches. Voters punish them."

Referring to Rahul Gandhi, she said organisations are built through consistent authentic nurturing leadership.

"Had national parties focussed on rampant corruption, providing strong Lokayuktas, people would have rewarded them. No one did! All of them had skeletons. It is the control over the CBI by the Congress which will provide the tacit support of Mayawati and Mulayam to Congress," she said.

She said the Congress at the Centre not only needs to understand what has gone wrong but what is right as well.

"Huge corruption has cost it heavily," she claimed.

"Rahul Gandhi's speech in Parliament on Lokpal will remain a game-changer. Had he heard the voices from Ramlila Ground (where Anna Hazare was protesting), the entire country would have been behind him," she said.

"Recall that the Badals, Bharatiya Janata Party, Left parties came to Jantar Mantar and publicly committed for an independent and effective Lokpal and Lokayukta, but the  Congress did not," she said.