“I am not a member of the BJP. Things like party platform and other issues (like constituency) would be decided in due course by the people. One has to keep changing according to changing situations,” he said. Asked if he was open to being a prime ministerial candidate, he said “the people would take all other decisions at a later stage”.

On the NDA and its prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, he said: Advani and I joined the party (then the Bharatiya Jana Sangh) way back in 1951, aur hum abhi tak saath hain (we are still together). I don’t know much about the NDA.”

The former Vice-President, however, saw nothing amiss in a former constitutional functionary taking to politics. “After being the first IndianGovernor General of India, C Rajagopalachari returned to politics and founded the Swantantra Party,” he said. He skirted the question when asked whether he too wished to found a political party.

He dismissed the speculation that he had decided to take the plunge because “he was pained by the state of affairs in the Rajasthan BJP”. “I am worried about bigger issues facing the country like terrorism,” he told this paper.

“There is a plan afoot to launch a movement against corruption and I am working on it, but nothing has been concretised yet,” Shekhawat said. Saying that casteism, corruption and money were “undermining the very principles of politics”, he said he took the decision after a meeting in Kota on Monday “where several supporters requested him to take the lead and contest the Lok Sabha elections”.

The BJP was guarded in its reaction to Shekhawat’s statement. “I cannot comment on what Shekhawatji has said as I have not heard his comments,” said party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.