| Lok Satta Party | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan |
| Founded | October 1, 2006 |
| Preceded by | Lok Satta (NGO) |
| Headquarters |
H.No: 8-2-674B/2/9, Road No: 13A, Banjara Hills |
| Newspaper | Lok Satta Times & http://news.loksatta.org |
| Youth wing | Yuva Satta |
| Women's wing | Mahila Satta |
| International affiliation | People For Lok Satta |
| Official colours | Blue |
| Election symbol | |
| Website | |
| www.LokSatta.org | |
| Politics of India Political parties Elections |
|
Lok Satta is a political party in India founded by Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan.[1] Launched on October 2, 2006[2] by the Lok Satta voluntary organization. Loksatta Movement fought for administrative and political reforms in the last 10 years including constitutional amendments to eliminate defections, reduce the size of cabinet, Right to Information Act (RTI), disclosure of criminal records and assets by all candidates and many more . The party has opted for the whistle symbol for the 2009 elections.[3]
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Its founder Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, is a former IAS officer of the 1980 batch and a democratic reformer from Andhra Pradesh, India. He quit his job in 1996, and worked on various democratic movements towards educating the people about governance and politics before starting the party.
D. V. V. S. Varma is the Working President, Katari Srinivasa Rao is the General Secretary and Bhisetti Babji is the Vice President for Andhra Pradesh State.
Vijay Anand heads the party in Tamil Nadu. Surendra Srivastava heads the party in Maharashtra state.
Lok Satta has a variety of political goals, including political, economic, and social equality for all people; making citizens the centre of governance, and to reform the government to make it less corrupt and more accessible and responsible to the people.[4]
The Party flag also serves as the Party logo.[5] The flag is in the form of a rectangle of dark blue colour and bearing a pure white circle, centered in which is a five-pointed star of the same colour as the rectangle.[5] The dark blue colour symbolizes the vastness, depth and inclusive nature of the ocean in which all streams finally merge.[5] The white colour of the circle stands for purity. The colour symbolizes unity of purpose and action amidst the diversity in religion, region, caste, language and beliefs.[5] The five-pointed blue star signifies that the party sets its course by the twinkle of the distant star, and not by the lights of passing ships. The five corners of the star stand for the five pillars of a true democracy:[5]
Lok Satta started as a citizen movement "Lok Satta Andolan" or Lok Satta Movement in Andhra Pradesh and later spread across the country, including Mumbai with the Vote JUHU campaign[6] and Vote Mumbai. Lok Satta organization worked on bringing about several political reforms in over ten years by working with other civic organizations. Lok Satta Party was founded with the realization that entering direct politics is the only option to bring about fundamental changes in our systems and a new political culture. It grew rapidly, and had over 30,000 members in Greater Hyderabad region and over 6,00,000 members in Andhra Pradesh before it became a political party.
Lok Satta Party is now in several other Indian states including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
People For Lok Satta (PFL) is a nonprofit political organization that advocates Lok Satta Party amongst NRIs, PIOs and other supporters living outside India. It is registered in United States as a 527 organization.
In addition to organizing various activities to strengthen Lok Satta party, People For Lok Satta has taken the initiative to lead the NRI Voting Rights campaign, Kill Corruption campaign and Dandi March II.
The Executive Board of People For Lok Satta is composed of:
Lok Satta party contested in 2008 in the Assembly by-elections for the first time, and was able to secure second place in one of the four places it contested from.[7] Lok Satta party was able to gain 10% votes.
Of the 249 Andhra Pradesh State Assembly seats that the party contested, it was able to win the Kukatpally Assembly Consituency, where it fielded Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan with a majority of over 15,000 votes over its nearest Congress(I) rival. Loksatta emerged as a significant political party by securing 1.9% of the vote across the state and 6.4% of vote in urban areas.
Loksatta took its first step in electoral politics in Karnataka, contesting 5 of the 198 wards in the BBMP elections. In these wards, the party candidates secured an average of 7% of the vote.
Lok Satta contested in 35 assembly constituencies in Tamilnadu. like Dr. B. Ilango , Mr. Vijay Anand , Mr.G.Viswanathan of 5th Pillar joined Lok Satta party.