Four months after Arvind Kejriwal announced his Aam Aadmi Party, yoga guru Ramdev followed suit. On Wednesday, Ramdev announced he was forming a political outfit.
Its name and coalition possibilities would be announced within two months.
Ramdev said the party's focus would
be on fighting corruption and bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks. But it would also "work towards" forming the government in the Centre.
Declaring he has "no political ambition", Ramdev said his party would contest from 100 constituencies across India in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
After the elections, it would go for tie-ups with 200 like-minded members of Parliament.
Accompanied by Lt Gen HS Hoon (retd) and a large number of supporters in saffron, Ramdev justified his idea of gaining political power, citing examples of Lord Krishna, Chanakya and Guru Gobind Singh.
"Social service and nation building is not possible without political power in our country, so apart from teaching yoga, I would make efforts to gain political power," Ramdev said.
"But I would not contest elections nor would accept any position."
In answer to a query, Ramdev said his party would work on the agenda of Hindutva and overlap with the BJP. The party had been so far been supportive of him. He, however, refused to comment on his liaison with Anna Hazare.