Baba Ramdev launches political party Bharat Swabhiman

He’s offered cure for most health problems. Now, he wants to cleanse the political system.

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Tuesday announced his entry into politics by naming his party, the Bharat Swabhiman, but insisted he won’t contest elections. “I will join politics to cleanse the system,” Ramdev said.

Ramdev, whose real name is Ramkishan Yadav, said his party would field candidates in all the 543 Lok Sabha seats in a bid to build a corruption-free India.

“We will have 7-10 lakh members in every district in a year or two,” he said, adding, “I will never contest elections and never take up any political position.” He said the next general election would be a watershed event, “when all the corrupt politicians will be wiped out” once the Bharat Swabhiman andolan becomes a force to reckon with.

“One of the main objectives of the movement is to end corruption and to bring back more than Rs300 lakh crore of black money from abroad for the country’s development,” he said. Baba Ramdev said the recent arrests of self-claimed spiritual gurus on criminal charges were “a very big conspiracy” even if some of them were indeed guilty.