‘Kutumb milans’, ‘samajik sadbhav’ meets on cards as Bhagwat on two-day Lucknow tour from today

“There is complete freedom in Hindu society. We are part of the Hindu Samaj. With that view, we should think about what we are doing and what we can do further. In the meetings of our castes and community, we should discuss what we are doing for Hindu samaj,” Bhagwat said, according to a release from RSS’s Gorakhpur prant.

In its ongoing Hindu sammelans, being organised to mark the centenary year of the RSS, the organisation’s functionaries and people with like-minded ideologies are appealing to the community to end caste-based divisions in society and unite as Hindus. Hindu Sammelans are being organised in more than 600 bastis in the Lucknow district alone.

Bhagwat’s remarks to rise above caste lines and work for the Hindu community and the similar messages in Hindu sammelans come at a time when Opposition political parties, the Samajwadi Party, BSP and Congress, are trying to woo different caste groups, especially Brahmins and Dalits, ahead of the 2027 assembly elections in UP.

While Brahmins are widely seen as supporters of the BJP, a sizeable number of Dalits, who were once considered a support base of the Mayawati-led BSP, supported the BJP from 2014 onwards and again shifted to the SP-Congress alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.