Anna sells first-timers NOTA option

Anna Hazare has urged first-time voters not to think twice before pressing the ‘None of the Above’ button on the voting machine if they do not find the right candidate with a clean and good image. A four-minute video in Hindi and Marathi released on Wednesday has Hazare exhorting voters not to fall prey to any kind of enticement and elect a “criminal”.

Hazare, whose Ralegan Siddhi village is part of the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency, told The Indian Express that he had not declared his support for any candidate so far. “This is my appeal to all voters, and especially the first-time voters, to exercise their franchise. But when they do so, they must remember the sacrifice of the great freedom fighters Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru and then decide how they can bring about a change in the country,” he said.

“Can you sell your vote for a mere Rs 200 or a liquor bottle,” Hazare has asked in the video that has Vande Mataram playing in the background. “We have to make a pledge to send only those candidates to the legislature and the Lok Sabha who have a non-corrupt and clean image,” he added.

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Hazare said there was no letup in corruption despite their agitation launched on August 16, 2011. “On a positive note, however, there has been a great deal of awareness about issues related to corruption,” Anna said.

Kaamod Kharade, a sound engineer from Ahmednagar and award-winning filmmaker (he won the 58th National Award for Sound Recording for Hindi film Ishqiya), made this video in 36 hours.