It has been indicated by the poll results released on Tuesday that nearly half of people participating in Tea Party movement rallies say they rarely participated in politics before.

According to the reports of Watchdog.org, the Sam Adams Alliance, a Chicago-based non-profit group that sponsored tax-day protests nationwide last year, interviewed dozens of Tea Party leaders to see what inspired people to participate in the grassroots movement.

49 individuals, who had organized protests in their communities, were surveyed by the group and then 10 of them were again interviewed.

Anne Sorock, a member of the Sam Adams Alliance, said, "We found that most of the (leaders) were inactive in politics before the Tea Parties. For many, there was a breaking point which led them to get behind this cause."

They had rarely participated in politics before joining the Tea Party last year, nearly half of those surveyed said. Only 16 percent of participants described themselves as "very involved" in politics at the start of the movement.

The findings countered the idea that the protests were attended by professional rabble-rousers, Sorock said. She also said that the leaders were mainly ordinary citizens who felt compelled to act.

She further said, "They felt like they were losing their country and had to do something or they would regret it."  (With Inputs from Agencies)