Anna Hazare, 74, said he will gather supporters to picket the homes of ruling party leaders Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, and aims to get arrested to highlight demands for a powerful, graft-fighting ombudsman.  

Hazare’s anti-corruption agenda has kept Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the ropes since January, impacting the pace of economic reform in Asia’s third largest economy as it battles high inflation and slowing economic growth.  

“Sonia Gandhi says the bill is strong. If it is so, let her come out and debate with us in front of media,” Hazare told reporters in his home village. “Convince the people of the country that it is strong. We will explain how it is not strong.”  

The government presented the bill to create the new ombudsman on Thursday in Parliament , but disruption by opposition parties over details slowed proceedings. Hazare’s team wants the bill redrafted to make the federal police an arm of the new watchdog.  

The push for the bill follows a series of corruption cases in the past two years highlighted by a telecoms scandal.  

A former telecoms minister in Singh’s government and a lawmaker of the ruling coalition are among the 14 individuals and three companies charged in a case involving alleged rigging in the grant of licences in 2007/08.  

A state auditor has estimated a potential revenue loss of up to $39 billion to the government due to sale of licences at below-market prices in that period.  

Singh, who launched economic reforms in India in 1991 as finance minister, retains a clean image but is criticized for failing to stop problems on his watch.  

His government has struggled to pass legislation ahead of a key election in the largest state of Uttar Pradesh in February, with even a populist measure of food subsidies questioned by state governments.