Anna Hazare’s protest at Ramlila Maidan a muted affair on Day 6

NEW DELHI: Ramlila Maidan on Wednesday. One corner saw a chaotic gathering of thousands of traders protesting amid the sweltering heat and dust against the sealing of their shops.

In another corner, it was day six of another protest, a comparatively a low key affair where the number of attendees were dwindling every day. This is where Anna Hazare was protesting.

A few hundred people turned up at the Turkman Gate entrance of Ramlila Maidan on Wednesday for Hazare’s indefinite hunger strike for the rights of the farmers, electoral reforms, and for a Lokpal and Lokayuktas.

Hazare, who had seven years back grabbed headlines with his India Against Corruption movement, which later led to the birth of the Aam Aadmi Party at the same venue, returned on Friday to launch a fresh agitation. Around 3,000 people had turned up at the start of the agitation but the footfall has been steadily dwindling ever since.

On Wednesday, a couple of hundred attendees were seen at Anna’s rally. One of the them, Suresh Kumar, 25, who had come with a couple of friends from Meerut, was seen busy charging his cellphone on a power extension board. “We are with Annaji. This is our cause. We need to stay and be a part of it. Many people have left. Few new faces have joined, too,” he said.

Jaykant Mishra, the chief media coordinator and the core committee member for the protest, said the timing of the agitation hit the numbers. “Many didn’t come as they were already fasting for Navratri till March 25. The harvest season kept a large number of farmers from turning up here. But they are protesting in more than 13 states across the country,” Mishra said.

According to him, a big march has been organised on Thursday in favour of the agitation. “Things will change tomorrow. More than 20,000 people are coming to the venue for a sansad march on Thursday. They will start coming in from tonight.”