Lok Satta Party

Lok Satta redirects here. For the newspaper see Loksatta.
Lok Satta Party
లోక్ సత్తా పార్టీ
Leader Jayaprakash Narayan
Founder Jayaprakash Narayan
Founded October 2, 2006
Preceded by Lok Satta (NGO)
Headquarters H.No: 8-2-674B/2/9, Road No: 13A, Banjara Hills
Hyderabad- 500034
Newspaper Lok Satta Times
Youth wing Yuva Satta
Women's wing Mahila Satta
Ideology Social Democracy[1]
Political position Centre-left[1]
International affiliation People For Lok Satta
Colours Blue   & Red  
ECI Status Unrecognised Political Party[2]
Seats in Lok Sabha
0 / 545
Seats in Rajya Sabha
0 / 245
Seats in the Legislative Assembly
0 / 294
Website
www.LokSatta.org

Lok Satta is a political party in India, founded by Jayaprakash Narayan, a former I.A.S. officer and renowned activist from Andhra Pradesh.[3] Since 1996, the Lok Satta Movement functioned as a non-governmental organisation, but on 2 October 2006, the movement was reorganised into a formal political party.[4] The party intends to further the causes of the Lok Satta Movement, including a reduction in the size of the cabinet, promotion of the Right to Information Act, and disclosure of criminal records and assets by political candidates. Beginning with the 2009 elections the party has adopted a whistle as their official symbol.[5] On March 23 2016, the party founder president, Jayaprakash Narayan said that they will not take part in electoral politics for sometime.[6]

History

Main article: Lok Satta Movement

Lok Satta started as a citizen movement, Lok Satta Andolana or Lok Satta Movement, in Andhra Pradesh and later spread across the country, including Mumbai, with the Vote JUHU and Vote Mumbai campaigns.[7] It also played a major role in the Jaago Re! One Billion Votes. The Lok Satta organisation worked on bringing about several political reforms by working with other civic organisations. Lok Satta Party was founded with the realisation that entering into politics is the only option to bring about fundamental changes in the system and a new political culture. It grew rapidly, amassing over 30,000 members in the Greater Hyderabad region and over 60,000 members in Andhra Pradesh before it became a political party.

Lok Satta Party is now present in several other Indian states, including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Maharashtra.

Leadership

The party's founder and National President is Jayaprakash Narayan, a former doctor who was an IAS officer in the 1980s from Andhra Pradesh. Narayan resigned from the IAS in 1996 to found the Lok Satta Movement, and the political party in 2006.

National Steering Committee

National Steering Committee is the highest body of Lok Satta Party. It is a subset of the National Council of the party.

Leader Role
Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan Founder
Surendra Srivastava National Party President
Dr. Ashwin Mahesh National Vice President
Hyma Potineni National General Secretary
Tara Krishnaswamy National Political Secretary and Chair person National Strategy committee
Srinivas Alavalli Chair person National Communications committee
Vasantha Gullapalli Chair person National Organization development committee
Jagadeeswaran Dakshinamoorthy National Spokes Person
Kalyan Raman Chairperson - National NRI Committee
Suresh Nandawat National Treasurer

Other key office-bearers of the party include P.R Rao, the State President of Telangana, and Palani Kumar, the State President of Tamil Nadu. Notable past members of the National Steering Committee include Dilip Sankarreddy.

Ideology

The political goals of Lok Satta include 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.[8]

Symbols

The Party flag also serves as the Party logo. The dark blue colour symbolises the vastness, depth and inclusive nature of the ocean. The white colour of the circle stands for purity. The colour symbolises unity of purpose and action. The five-pointed blue star signifies the party's course and the five corners of the star stand for the five pillars of a true democracy:[9]

Achievements

Although Loksatta is anti-corruption, it does not consider traditional parties untouchable and has worked with both the NDA and the UPA over the years. This political engagement drove the reform agenda of the country for over fifteen years. Some of the important contributions of Loksatta are in following reforms:

A few more reforms are in the pipeline.

References

  1. 1 2 "Loksatta - Government 'by' the people". Loksatta Party. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  2. ↑ "List of Political Parties and Election Symbols main Notification Dated 18.01.2013" (PDF). India: Election Commission of India. 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  3. ↑ "Lok Satta sees silent revolution". The Hindu. 2009-04-03. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  4. ↑ "Jayaprakash Narayan launches Lok Satta". The Times of India. 2006-10-02. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  5. ↑ "Lok Satta releases fourth list". The Hindu. 2009-03-28. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  6. ↑ "Lok Satta takes a break from electoral politics". The Hindu. 2016-03-23. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  7. ↑ "Welcome to Vote Mumbai". Vote Mumbai. Archived from the original on 2009-01-06.
  8. ↑ "About Lok Satta Party". LokSatta Official website. 4 February 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2013.
  9. ↑ "What does LOK SATTA PARTY emblem signify?". www.loksatta.org. Retrieved 2016-04-11.

External links

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