GANGAICHA, India — In this dusty northern village, a dozen volunteers from India's new anti-corruption party wound through narrow dirt lanes one recent day, hoping to win over voters in the world's most populous democracy.
“The common man has woken up!” they chanted as they marched past fruit shops, bullock carts and heaps of dried cow dung.
The Common Man Party stunned Indians by winning 40 percent of the seats in New Delhi's assembly in December. Now it is taking its anti-corruption message onto a larger stage. The party hopes to shake up Indian politics by positioning itself as a viable alternative to India's two main parties in national elections this spring.
On Sunday, the party's leader, Arvind Kejriwal, kicked off its national campaign at a rally about 50 miles north of Gangaicha, vowing to take on India's politicians and iconic corporate titans. Kejriwal assailed the power of India's richest man — Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, who lives in a 27-floor mansion in Mumbai — saying he was the country's true ruler, not the prime minister.
“Now, the Common Man rule is going to come,” Kejriwal vowed. “I have seen too much anger against these parties among people.”
Already, the party's style and rhetoric are forcing many Indian politicians to give up their most visible perks of power, like their multi-car convoys. They are starting to raise small donations from the public instead of simply relying on large, opaque corporate contributions.
But, as the volunteers would find in Gangaicha, in the northern state of Haryana, voters have a distinctly mixed reaction to Kejriwal. Some see him as a leader who can transform a graft-ridden country. Others see a man with a lot of bluster but little patience for the hard work of governing.
A tax official turned government-transparency activist, Kejriwal, 45, played a key role in an unprecedented nationwide series of marches and hunger strikes in 2011 against corruption scandals in the government.
Building on the huge outcry, Kejriwal formed the Common Man or Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2012 and became chief minister of New Delhi — similar to a U.S. governor.
But after just 49 days of theatrics — including leading street protests against police incompetence, ordering late-night anti-drug raids, and providing free water and cheap electricity -— Kejriwal quit on Feb. 14. He accused other parties of preventing him from introducing a law to create an anti-graft ombudsman.
