Prashant Bhushan made no reference to referendum: Yogendra Yadav

AAP leader Prashant Bhushan had made no reference to referendum on security forces in Naxal-hit areas, the party's leader Yogendra Yadav said.

"He (Bhushan) made no reference to referendum on security forces," Aam Aadmi Party leader said when asked about BJP's criticism of Bhushan for reportedly saying that there should be a referendum for deployment of security forces against Maoists in the affected areas.

Calling it a "completely mistaken report," Yadav said Bhushan had merely replied to a question on situation in Chhattisgarh and had made no mention of referendum.

"This is a completely mistaken report. Prashant was asked by a reporter about the situation in Chhattisgarh, to which he said that because land of tribals was being taken without their consent, this is what is creating the extremist situation in those areas," he said.

Asking media to report "what we say and not what they wish us to say," he said, "I am astonished how these things get completely distorted.

"He (Bhushan) made no reference to referendum on security forces, this was neither the question nor the answer," Yadav said.

After stoking controversy with his remarks on Kashmir, Bhushan had yesterday drawn flak from BJP for his comments on Naxal-hit areas.

Bhushan, whose demand for a referendum on deployment of security forces in Kashmir had raised hackles with his party AAP also distancing itself from it, had on Saturday reportedly called for a vote on the issue of deploying central paramilitary forces in Naxal-infested areas.

When asked about BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's comments on AAP, Yadav said he was happy that the Gujarat Chief Minister was getting the time to pay attention to their outfit.

"But we have not been able to get time (to react to what he said) as our attention is on one thing, which is how to end corruption in this country and empower common people. We are focused on this," he said.

Asked under whose leadership the party will contest assembly polls in Haryana, Yadav said the elections were still far away."Our first target is to fight Lok Sabha polls." AAP has decided to contest from all 10 Parliamentary seats in Haryana and all 90 assembly constituencies, polls for which are due in September-October this year.

He said AAP would like to move away from politics where names of who will be fielded for which post was important.

To a question, Yadav, who was flanked by senior AAP leader from Haryana Rajiv Godara and former Punjab DGP Shashi Kant, said, AAP has "made a small beginning" by winning 28 seats in Delhi and forming government there.

"If 28 MLAs in Delhi assembly can have such impact on the country's politics, what will happen if 280 (AAP MPs) sit in Parliament? But we are far away from that," he said.

"No doubt, it is my dream that Arvind Kejriwal becomes the nation's Prime Minister," he said.

Yadav said there has been a surge in the number of people wanting to join AAP after the Delhi Assembly polls as it was providing an alternative to the people who had lost faith in the present political system.

"People were fed up with the existing system and were looking for an alternative. In that, AAP has acted as a vehicle and more and more people are connecting with us. We are getting good response from even states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Gujarat," he said.

To a question on Lokayuktas or Lokpals, he said throughout the country these were restricted just to paper.

"It's a drama, they have no powers and are toothless. It will be our first priority to have an independent powerful establishment that has no interference from politicians and has its own investigating power."

Asked how his party will tackle money and muscle power in the polls, he said, "before peoples' power, these do not stand. Money power was no less in Delhi. The amount of money spent by AAP in entire Delhi polls equaled the amount spent by Congress and BJP candidates in one constituency," he claimed.

He ruled out any alliance with former Punjab Minister Manpreet Badal led PPP, saying, "we are not open to alliance building."

On the failure of the public durbar in Delhi recently, Yadav admitted that "maybe our mechanism to deal with the situation was lacking.... I accept there was weakness."