In his first step as a political activist, Ramanayya chose the Bahour commune, inhabited by about 25,000 people, as his area of operations. He worked hard to enroll municipal members, especially youth, as members of the "French India liberation volunteer corp", an organisation which he founded to counter violent pro-French activists. He also co-founded, with Sellane, a pro-merger independence organization dubbed the "French India Merger Congress". Sellane accepted its presidency and Ramanayya became its secretary general. Their primary goal was to cancel the referendum, as in their view the French settlements were dominated by pro-French parties who had gained control of the voting process by threats and the subjugation of citizens.
