Dikshit makes light of Team Anna's election plans

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday made light of Team Anna's plans to make a foray into politics by fighting the Delhi Assembly polls next year saying all sorts of candidates including Independents contest the election.

"Sometimes they say they are in politics, sometimes they say they are not. If it is the final decision, then let them fight (the election). All sorts of people fight election in New Delhi.

The Independents also fight," Dikshit said. She was asked to comment on Team Anna's plans to test the waters in the Delhi Assembly elections while skipping the polls in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh later this year.

The three-time chief minister is all set to lead the election campaign of the Congress for a fourth consecutive victory in the polls slated for November 2013. On August three while calling off his fast, Anna Hazare had announced formation of a political alternative though he had said he would not be a member of the party.

Asked about BJP president Nitin Gadkari and Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav sharing the dais with Ramdev in Ramlila Maidan before he was arrested, Dikshit said both the agitations of Hazare and the Yoga Guru have been backed by the BJP.

"We always said that both Anna Hazare's and Ramdev's movements are politically motivated (and backed) by BJP and it came out true," Dikshit said.

Ramdev was arrested along with his supporters when they tried to march towards Parliament demanding immediate steps to bring back black money and to protest against corruption.

Meanwhile, the counsel for the chief minister sought some more time to reply to Gupta's petition for quashing of the defamation case against him. The court allowed Dikshit's plea and fixed the matter for further hearing on September 11.

During the hearing, the court came down heavily on the counsel for both the leaders on their alleged reluctance to appear in the lower court.

"The fact of the matter is that you both do not want to appear," Justice Bhasin said and asked the lower court to deal with the issue of their presence in accordance with the law.

Earlier, the court had issued notice to the chief minister for Monday on Gupta's plea against the summons to him on the ground that Dikshit's complaint, on which the judicial process had been set in motion, was based on 'hearsay' allegations against him.

The magistrate had issued fresh summons to Gupta on June 22 after he failed to appear in the court in response to court's earlier order of June 4.

The summons were issued against Gupta on Dikshit's allegation that he had used 'uncivilised language' to defame her and gain political mileage before the MCD polls held on April 15.

Besides the criminal case, Dikshit had also filed a civil suit in the high court demanding a token damage of Rs one from Gupta for erecting hoardings across the city, accusing her government of conniving with private discoms and indulging in corruption in determining power tariff.

Gupta, however, had contended in the high court that 'fair'criticism is part and parcel of a healthy democracy.