The anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare and his team said Friday that they plan to create a “political alternative†for India in the form of a new political party. While Mr. Hazare said he would not himself enter the general elections in 2014, he pledged to spend the next year and a half campaigning across the country
Arvind Kejriwal, an activist widely believed to be the main strategist behind Mr. Hazare's movement, said the party's name and agenda are open to suggestions from the people.
“The movement against corruption will now take place both outside and inside Parliament,†he said in front of a crowd of thousands in New Delhi. He denounced India's large parties, including the ruling Congress Party and the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party, calling them “corrupt.â€
“It is a daring, adventurous move,†said Yogendra Yadav, a political analyst and one of the signat ories of a letter encouraging Team Anna to take on the existing political establishment. But it's not going to be easy, he said, given the scale and complexity of India's parliamentary elections and the diversity of its electorate.
Transitioning from a single-issue movement to a political party, with positions on a broad spectrum of topics, from national security and terrorism to the economy, is likely to be a complicated process that may test the unity of the group, analysts said.
And there are few such precedents in independent India's history. Movements in the past have successfully transformed themselves to enter the political mainstream, but they have been based on religion or ethnicity. Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, for instance, which governed India's largest state of Uttar Pradesh for a full term of five years, started as a movement for the rights of India's so-called “backward†classes.
It will be very tough for a non-regional, non-ethnic, no n-caste group to replicate the success of Mayawati's party with a policy issue like corruption, said E. Sridharan, a political analyst in Delhi. “Team Anna has a diffused constituency. They don't have a ready-made, mobilizable base,†he said, attributing the movement's rise to prominence to an urban population and a sympathetic media.
Another problem, analysts say, is that Mr. Hazare's group has little political experience. With the exception of Shanti Bhushan, who served as India's law minister in the 1970s, Team Anna represents a motley group of social workers. Few have run for public office at even the lower levels of government, like the village panchayat and state legislative assemblies.
Yet, Mr. Hazare and his supporters appear to be gunning for the top: “It's time to take this movement from the streets to the Parliament,†said Manish Sisodia, a key adviser to Mr. Hazare.
Then there's the fundamental issue of funding and organizational support . While a political party can technically be formed easily, by filing with the Election Commission, it takes massive resources, a base of party workers and candidates to run for elections.
“It is incredibly testing to launch a new political party,†said Dr. Jayprakash Narayan, who founded the Lok Satta Party in Andhra Pradesh in 2006. The sheer financial power of the traditional parties, manipulation of voters through money and liquor and the difficulties in building and sustaining a dedicated base of party workers are among the challenges his party continues to face.
Still, he welcomed Team Anna's political foray, saying it would go a long way in influencing and changing India's political system. “But don't expect dramatic electoral victories,†he warned.
Mr. Yadav, the analyst, went further, saying that “the baseline expectation should be zero†for the 2014 elections. “For a new political force to make a breakthrough and win seats will be ve ry tough,†he said.
The next election, in 2019, may be more realistic, he said.
