Kiran Bedi will not be a part of the political party to be launched by her colleagues in the erstwhile Team Anna. This makes her the second person in the disbanded team after former Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hedge to clearly dissociate herself from the yet-to-be-launched party. This is the first time Bedi has clearly spelt out her disinclination for the political platform to be launched by her Lokpal colleagues although she has been defending the decision to go political. I had been informing all my group that I shall not go into electoral politics. I have been expressing this all the way. But I shall maintain my support for the movement all the time. This is not new. The group is fully aware, Bedi told The Indian Express. Earlier she had tweeted: I am not a politician. I have joined no political party. I have no intentions to do. I have been doing what I believed in! Bedi was the only one,among the people believed from the core group of Anna Hazare during the Lokpal movement,to appear on yoga teacher Ramdevs fast stage at Ramlila Maidan though by the last day former RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal too had tweeted his support. Immediately after the announcement of a political party was made earlier this month,Hazare had made it clear that he would neither be a part of the political party nor fight elections. Hegde too had said that his association would continue to be with the movement but he did not want to enter electoral politics. Medha Patkar,who was also a member of the team,had kept the question of her own participation in elections open saying that the decision would have to be taken by the National Alliance of Peoples Movements,of which she is a part. Meanwhile,both Bedi and Kejriwal were critical of the PMs Independence Day speech with Bedi objecting,to the fact Manmohan Singh read the speech rather than giving it from the heart.
