RSS restarts its grassroots machinery to repeat success of BJP in UP

With Lok Sabha elections due next year in April-May, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has rebooted its grassroots machinery to repeat the success of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh (UP), the state that played a big role in bringing and returning the party to power at the Centre in 2014 and 2019, respectively.

UP, with 80 Lok Sabha seats, accounts for the highest number of them among all states.

As such, the state is crucial for the Sangh Parivar in furthering its social and cultural ideology based on nationalism and Hindutva.

While the RSS and its front organisations are bracing themselves up for the ground work in each of the 80 parliamentary constituencies, it would focus particularly on the 16 the BJP lost in 2019.

While the BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) won two Lok Sabha seats, making it 64 for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, and Congress managed victory in 10, five, and one seat, respectively.

Taking the agenda forward, RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale recently held a meeting in Lucknow with the leadership of the UP BJP, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his two deputies Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, state BJP President Bhupendra Chaudhary, and state BJP General Secretary (Organisation) Dharmapal.

Top RSS office-bearers in UP were privy to the discussion in the meeting, which talked of the proposed road map for the Lok Sabha polls, apart from the upcoming elections to UP urban local bodies and cooperatives, slated to take place later this year.

According to sources, the meeting resolved that the Sangh Parivar and its front organisations would work cohesively. RSS-affiliated outfits such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Durga Vahini, Sahkaar Bharati, and Adhivakta Parishad would work closely and deploy their volunteers and activists to collect vital feedback from the ground.

Moreover, the RSS expects the BJP and the state government to analyse the feedback and take measures before the general elections to counter any possible political headwinds.

“The RSS and its network of associate outfits work round the year to engage with the common people through different social and cultural platforms. It is done not with an eye on election or for the electoral benefit of any party. We are an ideologically-driven and non-political organisation working to instill a feeling of nationalism and cultural pride among the citizenry,” a senior office-bearer of an RSS-affiliated outfit told Business Standard.

Besides, the RSS is looking to mount a farmer outreach with the help of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. The Sangh is looking to expand its network of gram samitis in UP from about 12,000 to 15,000.

The prime objective of the village outreach is to ascertain the problems and grievances of the rural sector and take remedial measures to resolve issues by coordinating with the state government.

Political commentator A P Tiwari noted while there was a functional convergence between the BJP and RSS, before its centenary year in 2025, the RSS was proactively expanding its footprint, especially in rural areas.

“The BJP has explicitly started contriving its poll strategy with an eye on winning all the 80 seats. Hence, the electoral implications of the convergent functionalities are of paramount importance, and it promises rich electoral dividends,” he underlined.

On their part, RSS volunteers vouch for the Sangh’s “neutrality, objectivity, simplicity, and ideology”. Seasoned RSS volunteer and supporter A K Sinha said the Sangh was committed to nurturing an equitable and inclusive society rooted in “our rich culture and traditions”.

The recent victory of the BJP in Nagaland is the outcome of the outreach by the Sangh Parivar. The RSS shakhas in the Northeast are witnessing attendance by a large number of non-Hindus too, since they are convinced of its “noble objectives and national-building ideas”, he observed.