How to influence political parties to take decisions which are pro- people? Tell them that if they do not fall in line, they will not get your vote in the next election.

That is exactly what the Saboli ward of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), in East Delhi, is going to do.

Around 100 families with more than 400 votes have formed a vote bank against corruption in this ward.

Soon, a public meeting would be conducted where Saboli residents will ask the political representatives if their party can enact the Jan Lokpal bill- citizen’s version of the Lokpal Bill.

And if the answer is ‘no’, the citizens will ask the representatives not to approach them for votes in the next elections.

In this ward, the councillor won by just 329 votes last time.

Saboli is one of the first MCD wards which have formed a vote bank in order to influence the government to enact the Jan Lokpal bill, the draft of which has been formed by RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal, senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde and former chief election commissioner James Lyngdoh.

‘India against corruption,’ an association of civil society members working against corruption, is in the process of forming more Saboli like wards in the capital.

“Let us explain the parties in their own language. They form vote banks on religious and caste lines and divide the country. We will form vote bank against corruption, in which people from all religions and castes can join. This will unite the country,” said Arvind Kejriwal of ‘India against corruption.’