NEW DELHI, JUNE 29: The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) is worried that the BJP is in a state of drift. The Sangh top brass appears to be dismayed to see its political arm get mauled in elections at various levels across the country.The drift, according to Sangh insiders, is not only visible in the BJP's policy-areas, but also in organisational matters. But unlike previous occasions, when the Sangh would step in to help the BJP take corrective steps, it is determined to stay away.This, according to a full-timer, is the result of the policy-decision taken by the RSS to stay away from politics and, instead, concentrate on the reviving its organisation by focussing on the shakhas. ``We can only watch in dismay the slide in its fortunes,'' a functionary remarked.The effect of the party's current plight, according to him, is there for all to see. The party got a severe drubbing in the panchayat polls held in Karnataka, was routed in the municipal polls in Punjab and, worst, came fourth in the Soron byelection in Uttar Pradesh. Its prospects in the state's panchayat elections are not too rosy either.Further proof of the saffron outfit's fortunes taking a nosedive comes in the form of the unprecedented level of irregularities in its organisational polls, which have led to the postponement by three months of the election of its new president.Even in a state like Kerala, where the party is nowhere in sight of power, the party has been plagued by severe infighting between two factions.
