Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi (SP)

New Delhi, Jul 2: The civil society leaders said that their 90-minute discussions with BJP leaders, Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Jaswant Singh, Ravishankar Prasad and others, was fruitful. In addition to Hazare, Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi had participated in the discussions.

As part of the exercise launched by himself and his supporters to garner support for the civil society’s demand to bring higher judiciary and Prime Minister within the ambit of the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill, social activist, Anna Hazare, will meet Congress national president, Sonia Gandhi, on Saturday July 2. He will, during the visit, seek support of the Congress party for the proposals set forth by him and like-minded leaders of the civil society.

It is gathered that the meeting has been scheduled at 4 pm today. Hazare will, during this meeting, try to convince Sonia Gandhi about the legitimacy of the demand to make the office of the Prime Minister open for scrutiny by the Lokpal. It is well-known that Congress party leadership is not in a mood to climb down from its stand that PM’s office should not be brought under the ambit of the proposed Lokpal Bill.

Hazare and his team members are presently busy, meeting presidents of various political parties to seek support for their stand on the said bill, in the run up to the all-party meet being organized on Sunday in an effort to arrive at a consensus. The civil society leaders had met senior BJP leader, L K Advani, on Friday morning. Kiran Bedi, one of the key personalities representing civil society, said the team members are eagerly awaiting the meeting with Sonia Gandhi.

The meeting scheduled today gains significance in the face of challenge posed to BJP by Congress on Friday through its spokesperson, Abhishek Singhvi, to break its silence on the Lokpal Bill and spell out its stand on the demand to bring the Prime Minister under Lokpal scanner.