Press Releases Archive

Dr.JP's Message to Volunteers

Dear Friend,

You, along with thousands of like-minded volunteers and supporters have done a spectacular job for the 2009 elections! Lok Satta Party (LSP) whole-heartedly acknowledges and thanks all your unstinted efforts including phone calls to voters, talking to and convincing friends and family members, circulating emails, forwarding of SMSes, directly volunteering at our offices and in constituencies and donating to LSP’s cause. All these efforts helped ‘create a buzz’ about our Party, our campaign and our cause. Your efforts generated hope and excitement and sustained confidence among millions of voters.

The 2009 General Election has been an extraordinary journey….

Lok Satta Party received enthusiastic support received from all sections of the population. There are three reasons why:

  1. Twelve-and-half years of dedicated and committed hard work by thousands of Lok Satta Volunteers making it the largest civil society movement in India; they have been translating ideas into action on a sustained basis since 1997.

  2. The citizens have been watching Lok Satta Party very closely since its formation on October 2, 2006. They have scrutinized every move of LSP and assessed whether actions match its professed ideals on several key fronts:

    • Abjuring voter-inducements such as money and liquor
    • Raising and utilizing resources in a completely ethical and transparent manner
    • Not having alliances and seat adjustments with parties/groups for short-term expediency at the cost of principles and long-term outcomes
    • Whether its agenda is consistent, practical, contributes to nation-building and reconciles conflicting interests
    • Not resorting to extralegal and obstructionist methods of political action such as bandhs, rasta rokos, etc.
    • Internal democracy in conducting the party affairs


    LSP emerged successful on all these counts.

    Most of LSP’s candidates are young, seriously committed to public good but were new to electoral politics and were generally unknown to the people. However, not a single LSP candidate had resorted to unethical practices – even as the top leaders of other parties had shamelessly resorted to bribing of voters with money and liquor, in their own constituencies.

    Thousands of ordinary citizens including the poor and the deprived, and the disadvantaged had contributed their time and money for LSP’s campaign. Many daily wage labourers had contributed Rs. 500-1000 – well beyond their means.

    While there are some shortcomings in the party as a whole, the people have recognized LSP’s honest and earnest efforts to build a New Political Culture and to give a sensible direction to building the country’s future.

  3. The traditional political parties, which are LSP’s competitors, had thoroughly exposed themselves by their naked opportunism, family rule, corruption, absence of a real agenda and bankruptcy of ideas, unethical and illegal practices and lack of demonstrable commitment to public good. The disgust and anger against traditional politics made LSP even more attractive to the voters.

In this election, LSP drew support from all sections of the society and from the following groups, in particular:

  • The youth, including college-educated youth and even school-children
  • Women, especially the housewives
  • The middle class
  • Families affected by the liquor menace, in the rural areas
  • Other sections of the poor, whose children (typically school or college-going) had some awareness about LSP and on the real issues confronting their families.

The challenges faced by LSP have not been small either:

Despite the groundswell of public support, the mainstream media had almost completely ignored LSP. For instance, had a non-Telugu person come to AP and followed the newspapers, she would not have learnt that LSP even exists! This is because of cynicism, corruption including selling of news space for partisan propaganda, directed vested interest and participation in power games. However, thanks to the word-of-mouth, LSP’ message reached nearly all people in the State.

LSP has put up 248 candidates for the AP Legislative Assembly (out of a total of 294 seats) and 33 candidates for the Lok Sabha (out of 42 from the State). The total expenditure incurred by all our candidates and the Party, put together, would be less than half of the expenditure incurred by a single MP candidate from a traditional political party. All the traditional parties put together have spent over 4500 crore rupees during this election; LSP’s total expenditure (party and candidates together) is around 0.1% of this. The average expenditure of LSP’s candidates for each constituency is less than Rs. 1 lakh! Their rivals spent Rs 3-5 crores, on an average.

All things considered, how the groundswell of public opinion would translate into votes and subsequently, into seats will be known only on May 16th, 2009, when the Election Commission counts the votes and declares the results. Irrespective of the election results, Lok Satta Party is firmly committed to successfully establishing a truly ethical New Political Culture across India.

Thanks to all your efforts over the recent few months, Andhra Pradesh has become the epicenter for transformational politics. In five years time, politics of India will change for good as people discover their strength and realize they are the masters of their destiny and not the parties and their candidates.

We hope you will not just continue but increase your support of and participation in LSP’s New Political Culture!

Warm Regards,

Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan

Sunday, May 10, 2009 - 09:15

Lok Satta welcomes SC observation

The Lok Satta Party today welcomed the Supreme Court observation that people could hold political parties accountable for their election manifesto promises. By pointing out that voters could seek compensation from political parties and elected representatives for failure to fulfill their election-eve commitments, the Supreme Court upheld the voter’s importance.

Talking to the media, party spokesmen Katari Srinivasa Rao and Dr. P. Bhaskara Rao said that the Lok Satta, unlike other parties, gave 50 irrevocable guarantees all of which were constitutionally correct and could be fulfilled with the available resources. In contrast, the traditional parties made promises, which they had no intention to fulfill or were beyond the means available or constitutionally not permitted. The Congress Party had promised total prohibition in stages but promoted liquor consumption. The Telugu Desam Party’s color TV sets’ promise amounted to a corrupt electoral practice and its cash transfer scheme in its present form was impracticable given the State’s limited resources. The Praja Rajyam Party promised distribution of land to all the landless poor without recognizing that the land was a limited resource.

The Lok Satta, the two leaders pointed out, was not opposed to the State going to the assistance of the distressed and the disadvantaged. It contended that the limited resources of the State should be utilized to help people stand on their own feet. For this, the State should provide quality education and health care to all free of cost, provide livelihood skills to all the youth and ensure higher incomes in agriculture and traditional occupations.

Commenting on the fire in the Secretariat, the spokesmen said it exposed the Government’s negligence in taking fire prevention measures.

Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 19:11

Lok Satta spends the least, yet Wins over people: Dr. JP

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan disclosed today that the average expenditure incurred by a Lok Satta candidate in the Assembly constituencies is less than Rs.1 lakh in contrast to Rs.3crore -5 crore by each of his or her traditional party rival.

“The total expenditure incurred by all of our candidates and the party would be less than half of the expenditure incurred by a single MP candidate from a traditional political party. All the traditional parties put together have spent over Rs.4500 crore during this election; the Lok Satta’s total expenditure (both the party’s and candidates’ put together) is around 0.1% of this.”

Dr, JP, who reviewed the performance of the party in the 2009 elections in North Telangana districts, pointed that most of LSP’s candidates are young, seriously committed to public good but are new to electoral politics and generally unknown to the people. “Yet not a single party candidate had resorted to unethical practices – even as the top leaders of other parties had shamelessly resorted to bribing of voters with money and liquor, in their own constituencies.”

Briefing the media on the review meeting, party General Secretaries V. Laxman Balaji and G. Raja Reddy said the Lok Satta had contested 248 of the total 294 Assembly seats and 33 of the 42 total Lok Sabha seats.

Dr. JP said the Lok Satta had received enthusiastic support from all sections of people because of its track record as a movement for 12 years since 1997 and as a party since October 2006. By refusing to induce voters with money and liquor, raising and utilizing funds in an ethical and transparent manner and deciding against entering into opportunistic electoral alliances the party impressed the voters. Also appealing to the voters were its practical agenda to transform the people’s lives, its commitment against inconveniencing people through unconstitutional means like bandhs and rasta rokos and its internal democracy.

Dr. JP said the party’s political rivals had strengthened the Lok Satta by exposing themselves with their “naked opportunism, family rule, corruption, absence of a real agenda and bankruptcy of ideas, unethical and illegal practices and lack of demonstrable commitment to public good. The disgust and anger against traditional politics made the LSP even more attractive to the voters.”

Dr. JP said that despite the groundswell of public support, the mainstream media had almost completely ignored LSP. Had a non-Telugu person come to AP and followed newspapers, he or she would not have known that the Lok Satta Party even existed. “This is because of cynicism, corruption including selling of news space for partisan propaganda, vested interests and participation in power games.” However, thanks to the word-of-mouth, LSP’ message reached nearly all people in the State.

Dr. JP said that the 2009 elections have made Andhra Pradesh the epicenter for transformational politics. “In five years time, politics of India will change for the better as people discover their strength and realize they are the masters of their destiny and not the parties and their candidates.”

At a time the media continued to speculate as to which of the three parties – the Congress, TDP and PRP – would come to power in Andhra Pradesh, about 50 young men from Maheswaram and L. B. Nagar areas joined the Lok Satta Party in the presence of Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan at the party headquarters here today.

“We are unconcerned about the outcome of the general elections since no traditional party could transform the present state of affairs. We believe that the Lok Satta alone will deliver what it has promised,” said Mr. Panneeru Srinivas and Mr. Kottam Jangayya Yadav, who led them. They said all of them had been TDP supporters in the past.

Welcoming the young people into the party, Dr. JP said the present elections would change politics in the country forever since lakhs of youth, women and considerable sections of the poor had realized the importance of voting in transforming their lives.

Although the Lok Satta enjoyed tremendous support from people, it had not been able to translate it into votes because of the inability of party candidates to spend even the minimum permitted amounts, media’s calculated neglect of the party, casteism assuming epidemic proportions, irresistible offers of money and liquor in return for votes and pulls and pressures exerted by traditional party leaders on ignorant and illiterate rural voters.

Notwithstanding formidable odds, the results would show the Lok Satta’s performance in terms of votes polled would be extraordinary, said Dr. JP.

Referring to the Bholakpur tragedy in which a number of people died because of polluted drinking water, Dr. JP asked why no political party other than the Lok Satta had talked of providing protected water to every habitation. The Lok Satta had promised not merely drinking water but also a toilet for every home, and road and public transport facilities to every village.

Thursday, May 7, 2009 - 18:11

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