Deshmukh meets Hazare with appeal to end fast

Amidst efforts to break the deadlock between government and Anna Hazare team, senior Maharashtrian leader and Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Thursday met the Gandhian to appeal to him to end his fast.

Following a meeting of Congress Parliamentary Party, where some members felt that leaders from Maharashtra should be roped in to talk to the 74-year-old Gandhian, Deshmukh drove to Ramlila Maidan to meet Hazare but maintained that it was "in his personal capacity."

"I met Anna Hazare to request him to end fast following the appeal by Parliament and the Prime Minister," he told media persons after briefing Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee about his 15-minute meeting with Hazare.

Describing his meeting with Hazare as "personal", the minister said he went there as so many people from Maharashtra were there.

"Many people from my place are there. We are also concerned about his health. Our efforts is to end his fast soon. We are trying everything that we can," Deshmukh said.

A BJP delegation led by its General Secretary J P Natta met Hazare and handed him a letter by party president Nitin Gadkari who also appealed to the Gandhian to end his fast. "We have told Hazare that our party will support a strong Lokpal bill and that are solidly behind him in this campaign," he said.

Earlier in the evening, the core committee of Team Anna Hazare met and discussed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's fresh offer that the Jan Lokpal Bill will be considered by Parliament and his request to the Gandhian to end his hunger strike.

The meeting at Ramlila Maidan this afternoon was attended by Hazare, Shanti Bhushan, Kiran Bedi, Medha Patkar and others.

Hailing the Gandhian as "an embodiment of the disgust and concern of the people over corruption" and expressing his respect for him, Singh said, the government will find effective ways and means to discuss the Jan Lokpal Bill, along with the government version of the Bill, Aruna Roy's Bill and the paper presented by Jaiprakash Narayan.

The meeting assumed significance against the backdrop of mounting pressure on Team Anna to persuade the Gandhian to end his fast which has entered its tenth day.