RSS, Sangh members slog for Gadkari's victory in Nagpur

Members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other Sangh Parivar outfits slogged it out on Thursday in Nagpur to see to it that full voting took place in the constituency, so as to ensure a victory for former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, Nitin Gadkari.

RSS swayamsevaks and Sangh members formed booth-wise teams and hit the roads right from the beginning of voting at 7 am on Thursday. These teams, working parallel with the BJP’s organisational network, approached voters from their respective areas and made them vote at the nearest polling booth.

“The  message is subtle. RSS swayamsevaks and members of the Parivar are not revealing any name for whom the voter should vote but are making all-out efforts so that the voting percentage is increased. Mohanrao Bhagwatji (RSS chief) in his speech delivered on Dussehra last year had called for a 100 per cent voting on the basis of issues, policies and character of the contestants,” an RSS leader, who is associated with one of its outfits, told Business Standard after casting his vote. He said emphasis was given to person-to-person contact.

According to another leader, Swayamsevaks were informed through RSS shakhas to bring out voters in their respective areas for polling in large numbers.

“There are about 650 functioning shakhas in the Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency. Those attending shakhas had been asked to be alert so that if a particular resident of their locality had shifted to a new area, he or she could be approached and brought to the polling booth,” he said.   

He admitted that the voting of nearly 600,000 of the total 1.8 million voters, who belong to the Dalits and Muslims, would be crucial. “Despite the Congress’ attempt to retain its traditional vote bank, new trends might emerge this time as people are looking for a change,” he said.

Gadkari, who is a Brahmin, is quite optimistic about getting Muslim support because of the work he has done for the community.

All 10 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region, including Nagpur, voted on Thursday. ‘Orange City’ Nagpur, the second capital of Maharashtra, is also the national headquarters of the RSS.

In Nagpur, Nitin Gadkari is pitted against seven-term Congress MP Vilas Muttemvar, Aam Aadmi Party’s Anjali Damania and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mohan Gaikwad. Since 1951 (when the first elections in independent India took place), the BJP has bagged the Nagpur seat just once, in 1996.