KURNOOL: Jayaprakash Narayan, National Coordinator of Lok Satta, has said that once the Lok Satta party comes into being on October 2, it would not be in a hurry to jump into electoral politics.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, he said the target of the party was to contest the Assembly elections in 2009. It might contest a few byelections before that but not in the immediate future.

Asked about his role in case the party won a majority of seats, Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan said it all depended on the political strategy of the party at that moment. The Lok Satta, which was coming up with the sole mission of political cleansing, would leave it to the party to elect its leader, he said.

`National outlook'

He said at the moment, the party wanted to confine its activities to Andhra Pradesh and spread to other places later, depending on the response of people in different States.

The Lok Satta would definitely be a party with a national outlook, he said.

Asked about the possible electoral understanding, he explained that no mainstream party would embrace them after seeing the agenda of Lok Satta and said the party would go to extent of appealing to public to defeat its own candidate in case he resorted to enticing voters.

Philosophy of party

Explaining the basic philosophy of the new party, Dr Narayan said the activities of the Lok Satta hinged on the simple agenda of providing health and education to all irrespective of caste, creed and region, giving a meaningful role to the underrepresented sections, remunerative agriculture, employment to youth, autonomous police system and accessible judiciary.

Lok Satta, as a non-political body, had fought for electoral reforms and brought to light the criminal history of contestants. Now, it was time for the Lok Satta to show a political model devoid of money and muscle power.

Degeneration

He said in last few decades, the political parties played into the hands of those who fought the elections with money, liquor and violence. As the anti-social elements were at the helm, the parties were unable to check the influence of the forces despite their wish to give a clean administration to people.

In the process, even the crucial police system had become a tool in the hands of unscrupulous people. "Half of the people will withdraw from politics, the moment functional autonomy is given to police system," he said. In developed democracies, policemen would lose jobs if they listened to politicians but in India it was the opposite, Dr Narayan.

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