Having been closely associated with Anna Hazare’s Jan lokpal movement in the past, social activist Medha Patkar on Thursday hinted at the possibility of her joining the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the coming weeks.

Admitting that her organisation was actively considering a proposal to join or ally itself politically with the AAP, Patkar said, “On behalf the national coordination committee of Jan Andolan, we are eliciting the views of our activists based in 20 states across the country on whether we should take a plunge into politics. It is true that the AAP has created a platform conducive enough for an organization like ours to make a political intervention. We are already aware of the AAP’s political views. We are now studying the manifestos brought out by the AAP for the Delhi Assembly elections”.

“We are also holding talks with the AAP leaders. After eliciting the views of our activists across the country, we will take a final call on the issue of joining the AAP. Even if we decide to associate ourselves with the AAP, our politics of agitations will continue,” Patkar told a regional television channel. 

Patkar has been close to Hazare for very many years. Many had thought that she shares Hazare’s aversion for politics.    However, Patkar’s move to take a political plunge comes as a pleasant surprise. For, in the past, she had never shown any inclination of joining politics. Sources close to her say it her disappointment that her various agitations on rural and urban issues have been eliciting a positive response from the powers-that-be in the states and at the Centre and superlative performance of a mass movement-triggered AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections, have prompted her to think in terms of joining the Arvind Kejriwal-led fledgling party.