Sangh Parivar aims firm footing in Bengal

Buoyed by BJP's emergence as a key player in West Bengal politics, RSS and affiliates of Sangh Parivar are now aiming to gain a strong foothold in the state.

"There is a surge in favour of RSS throughout the country and Bengal is also a part of it. Anger of the majority community against the appeasement of the minorities may be an added reason in Bengal. Our aim is now to reach to every block of the state," RSS chief spokesperson Manmohan Vaidya told PTI.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat made recent visits to the state and over 10,000 Sangh Parichiti Vargas (RSS campaigns) have been organised in the past few months.

"Earlier the number of shakas organised by us was not so impressive but now these have increased to a large extent in the past two years. Now we organise around 1500 daily shakas in entire Bengal region. The RSS and its ideology are now attracting people from all sections of the society," RSS spokesperson (South Bengal) Jishnu Basu said.

The VHP, another ideological offshoots of RSS, which aggressively advocates the concept of Hindu Rashtra, too claims to have an increased membership base in the past one year.

"At present we have around 80,000 activists throughout the state which is three times more what we used to have in 2012. We are targeting to increase our membership to near about two lakhs this year," VHP state leader Sachindranath Singha said.

According to RSS and VHP leaders, issues of Bangladeshi infiltration, minority appeasement and anti-national fundamentalist activities which came into forefront following the October 2 Burdwan blast, are some of issues that they are using to reach out to the masses.

"We are focusing on JMB terror modules, section of madrasas as breeding grounds of terrorism, and Bangladeshi infiltration as some of the main issues we are using to reach out to the masses. And we are getting a very good response," Singha claimed.

BJP's students' wing ABVP, which till yesterday was a non entity in the state's student's politics which is polarised between Trinamool Chatra Parishad (TMCP) and CPI(M)'s wing SFI, has made its presence felt by winning elections in two colleges in the state after a decade.