Splitsville for Team Anna?

By HARI KUMAR and JIM YARDLEY

Anna Hazare, the anti-corruption crusader, may be organizing a political party, but he has no plans to join it. Nor to be a candidate for office. Nor to continue the work of Team Anna.

Mr. Hazare on Monday announced the dissolution of Team Anna, the committee of advisers, civil society activists, lawyers and others who helped lead his anti-corruption movement.

“Today, we have stopped the work of Team Anna,” Mr. Hazare wrote in Hindi on his blog.

The move, which surprised some of his supporters, may be part of a process for Mr. Hazare to form a political party, though no specifics were mentioned in his blog post. Three days ago, Mr. Hazare and other supporters ended an indefinite fast by declaring their intention to transform his anti-corruption protest movement into a formalized political party that would field candidates across India.

Mr. Hazare ha s become a major figure in Indian politics since his anti-corruption campaign first caught the public's imagination in April 2011. The campaign was centered on his demand for a law creating an ombudsman agency to monitor government corruption, known as the Jan Lokpal. Mr. Hazare held different hunger strikes and brought the country to a standstill in August 2011, as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets for roughly two weeks to support his movement.

Parliament responded by passing a resolution pledging to support a Lokpal agency, but so far legislation has only been passed in the lower house, the Lok Sabha. Legislation is still pending in the upper house, and Mr. Hazare's movement has suffered self-inflicted wounds in recent months, as public support has weakened. Crowds for his recent fast were far smaller than for his campaigns in 2011.

Political analysts have greeted Mr. Hazare's decision to form a political party with a mixed reaction. Some hope that he can galvanize electoral politics; others have warned that engaging in electoral politics will diminish his stature and that of his movement in the eyes of the Indian public.

In his blog, Mr. Hazare suggested he would campaign on behalf of a new party, which he hoped would elect members to Parliament committed to passing the Jan Lokpal legislation. But Mr. Hazare himself would not be a member, or a candidate himself.

“I have given an alternative of sending good people to Parliament,” he wrote. “But I am not going to be part of any party nor will I contest elections. After getting Jan Lokpal, I will go back to Maharashtra and indulge in my activities.”

“I have told this to those who are for forming a party,” he continued.

Reached by telephone, several members of Team Anna expressed surprise that the anti-corruption agitation campaign coordinated by the group was coming to an end.

“I was not consulted about today's decision,â € said N. Santosh Hegde, a former justice of the Supreme Court of India and a Team Anna member. “I wish they would have continued the anti-corruption agitation.”

Medha Patkar, a social activist who works for rehabilitation of dam evacuees in Madhya Pradesh, said, “ I do not know about this development so I cannot comment at this stage.” Ms. Patkar, a core committee member of Team Anna, is not in favor of converting the movement into a political party.

Akhil Gogoi, a Right to Information activist in Assam, also was not informed of the dissolution of Team Anna. “No, I am not aware of this decision,” Mr. Gogoi said. “I am against converting the anti-corruption agitation in to a political party.”

Mr. Gogoi said he has written a letter to Mr. Hazare cautioning him that, “This will be a major and serious breach of trust.”

Kiran Bedi, a retired police officer and a member of Team Anna, wrote on her blog, “Read Anna's blog. Do not know what all it means? For we all had very useful preparatory meeting with Annaji wherein he gave useful guidance!”

In his blog, Mr. Hazare signaled that the hunger strike tactics used in the past have now lost some effectiveness in stirring public support.

“The government is not willing to make the Jan Llokpal law,” he wrote. “How long we can keep on going on hunger strikes again and again? Now we stop our hunger strike and give an alternative to people.”