Anna aides did not let me talk to him: Kejriwal

On receiving Hazare’s letter on Monday — in which he asked Kejriwal not to “misuse” his name in AAP’s Delhi poll campaign — senior party leader Kumar Vishwas rushed to Ralegan Siddhi to meet Hazare and clarify Kejriwal’s stance.

According to Hazare,he was ready to talk to Kejriwal over the alleged misuse of the Jan Lokpal movement funds by the latter for his political outfit.

Hazare said he was unaware about the “Anna SMS card” issue and the case in the Delhi court till a few days ago. He said some people in Delhi wrote to him informing him about the issue and told him that he was one of the nine accused in the case filed by an NGO.

“I don’t know who started the Anna SMS card scheme and why. I was unaware about it. I don’t know how much money was made. So when I received this letter from Delhi,I got worried. I felt that my name was misused. I have no interest in money,and I don’t want to be dragged to court without having done anything wrong. That’s why I wrote to Arvind asking about the issue and to check if whatever said in the letter was true. We could have discussed this over phone,but I avoided it as I think our phones are being tapped,” Hazare said.

When apprised of Kejriwal’s claim that he had been trying to speak to Anna but intermediaries were not allowing him to,Hazare said,“We are not enemies… I didn’t know he wanted to talk to me. I am ready to talk to Kejriwal,” he said.

Meanwhile,Kejriwal and the AAP alleged that Hazare aides were not allowing him to talk to Hazare despite several attempts.

“I had tried to speak to him several times,but nowadays,some mediators are not letting me talk to Anna. This was never a problem before,” Kejriwal said.