SEHJRA (BARNALA): Call it a gimmick or his passion to indulge in bizarre things, but Punjab villager Mitt Singh Sehjra is on a mission again. A veteran of unsuccessfully contesting 41 elections -- to parliament, state assembly, etc -- Sehjra had filed nomination papers for presidential and vice presidential elections, only to be rejected on about seven occasions.
Mitt Singh has now decided to undertake a yatra, barefooted, to highlight the issue of corruption in India, a day before social crusader Anna Hazare undertakes a fast on the issue at the national capital.
Singh, 69, enjoys no mass following, but has thrown away his shoes, vowing not to wear these till he covers the 12,000 villages in Punjab on foot and makes people rise against corruption. He terms his campaign as equally important as that of Anna Hazare and yoga guru Ramdev.
"I have decided to undertake a rural yatra against corruption to highlight how it is impacting the lives of poor rural people, who have to shell out varying amounts for getting even their genuine works done", said Mitt Singh, while starting the campaign from his Sehjra village on Tuesday.
"Though I will try to visit the whole nation for spreading the message, I will focus more on Punjab in the first phase. I will impress upon people to spare time on Independence Day to protest against corruption," said Mitt Singh.
Mitt Singh had recently filed nomination papers for presidential election and had earlier contested against late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1978 from Chikmagalore, AICC president Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli in 2006 and against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in 2009 parliamentary elections. In 1989, when militancy was at its peak in Punjab, he had posed serious problems for state machinery by filing nomination papers from seven parliamentary constituencies. Mitt Singh owns 14 acres of agricultural land at his native village.