Anna's follower, all alone kicks off assembly poll campaign

AMRITSAR: Sham Lal, 29, son of a rickshaw-puller and follower of Anna Hazare, became probably the first candidate to have started assembly election campaign all alone, after paying homage to Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi on his birth anniversary on Sunday. Sham Lal, popularly known as Sham Lal Gandhi, had contested last Lok Sabha elections also and had forfeited his deposit and also lost his job of a handloom worker.
"I am out of job, my father and brother helps me financially, I will go door-to-door to propagate ideology of Bapuji and I am sure I will arrange enough security money for the ensuing assembly elections," said Lal.
Sham Lal is also a follower of social activist Anna Hazare and had gone to Delhi to sit on fast at Jantar Mantar and had participated in the anti-corruption campaign at Amritsar. But he is against Baba Ramdev style of anti-corruption campaign.
"Baba Ramdev speaks only against Congress and its leaders, whereas a person like him should be unbiased."
He claimed that since last Lok Sabha elections he had been helping people in getting their work done from government departments. " I help people in getting ration card, old age pension etc." said Lal.
Lal advocates for a corruption-free society and appeals to shopkeepers not to grease the palm of government employees. "They listen to me but I know it is difficult for them to follow on the footsteps of Gandhiji," said Lal.
Sham Lal had already prepared his election schedule, expenses and target voters. He said he would cover every part of his constituency on cycle and would sleep there on roadside if it was too late to return home. "I am not making any false promises, but telling people to walk on the path of truth," he said.
"All I need is food and couple of thousands of rupees for contesting elections, as I did in Lok Sabha elections," he added.