New Delhi: Indian anti-graft activists led by Anna Hazare said on Friday they would start a new political movement aimed at winning seats in parliament for candidates committed to fighting corruption in public life.

The move ahead of a 2014 general election marks a new chapter in their bid to rid the country of the scourge of bribe-taking which mobilised hundreds of thousands last year nation-wide but has since fizzled out.

Aides to Hazare, a 75-year-old former army driver who models his appearance on independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, broke the news at the end of his six-day hunger strike to press his demand for a new powerful anti-corruption ombudsman.

“This is not a party. It will be a movement from the street to parliament. There will be no high command. People will decide the candidates and they will fund it,” fellow activist Arvind Kejriwal told a crowd of several thousand.

Hazare, whose movement goes under the name “India Against Corruption,” is surrounded by trusted lieutenants who are collectively known as “Team Anna” in the Indian media.

They comprise Right to Information activist Kejriwal, former policewoman Kiran Bedi and former Supreme Court judge and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan among others.

Recently retired army chief V.K. Singh, who fell out publicly with the government during his term in office, also signalled his support and new role in politics by joining the rally on Friday.

Hazare said he will not contest a seat, but will instead tour the nation.

“I will travel through the whole country for one and a half years ... I will awaken the whole population,” he told crowds of supporters, many dressed in the distinctive white cap which has become his trademark.

India will go to the polls in 2014 for a general election with the ruling Congress party enfeebled after a string of corruption scandals and widespread criticism of its handling of the economy.

Hazare became an unlikely national hero last August when he led countrywide protests that tapped into a rich seam of public anger at corruption and caught Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tainted coalition government unawares.

During a 12-day hunger strike, he was feted as a latter-day Mahatma Gandhi and mobbed at a triumphal procession through the capital New Delhi.

The veteran activist’s latest protest — which he had threatened to pursue “until death” — had sought to pressure the government into strengthening a new anti-corruption bill currently pending a parliamentary committee hearing.

His campaign had also demanded a special probe into possible graft allegations against 15 ministers, including the prime minister.

This time, the media have been less openly supportive with many saying Hazare has gone too far by displaying an autocratic streak in insisting the government accept his demands.

At the grounds of his latest protest in central New Delhi, some supporters said the campaign had blundered by formally going into politics, while others said it was important for it to gain electoral legitimacy

“Personally I don’t approve of Team Anna’s entry into politics. It should have remained a social movement,” said Pushpendra Sharma, a 24-year-old student. “The movement has not died, it has committed suicide.”