RSS, BJP close the distance via Haryana, onward now to Maharashtra, Jharkhand

While BJP leaders insist that there was never any stress between workers of the party and Sangh on the ground, putting it down to speculation, sources said that the Lok Sabha poll setback was an eye-opener for both sides to pull together.

For the Sangh, whose clout with the BJP is diminished under the dominant Modi-Shah partnership, the Haryana win was gratifying proof that its organization and network could still turn around an election.

Still, some of the wrinkles required ironing out, and sources said this was done during multiple discussions, including on the sidelines of recent RSS meetings at Ranchi and Palakkad, and in Delhi. A source said: “There was never an ideological conflict between the two outfits, only functional difficulties. These are being sorted.”

The decision to assign monitoring of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship schemes to Union minister and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan – considered an RSS favourite, and one of the frontrunners for next BJP president – is part of the same exercise, said sources.

Cues are also being read into PM Modi’s post soon after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s Vijayadashmi address, urging people to heed “the important national issues” he had raised.

In Haryana, the RSS’s traditional ways of small-scale networking, social outreach and small gatherings are believed to have effectively countered the Congress-led Opposition’s claims that a BJP government may change the Constitution. Even as an overconfident Opposition apparently missed this silent campaign, the non-Jat OBC votes as well as a large chunk of the Scheduled Caste votes moved towards the BJP in Haryana.

Sources said the BJP’s calculations had shown that while it had an edge in 44 Assembly constituencies out of the 90 in Haryana, it trailed in areas mainly due to “mismanagement”. In the Lok Sabha polls, according to a leader, the BJP failed to bridge the gap as many party workers did not engage voters who were apathetic either due to the BJP’s “overconfidence” after 10 years in power or due to anger over candidate selection. Many did not come out to vote themselves, the BJP leader said.

“The solution was to get them out to campaign and vote. And the RSS volunteers pitched in,” said one leader.

The BJP is hoping to similarly rally OBC groups and SC/ST communities to counter the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s focus on Marathas and Muslims in Maharashtra. So, if the Congress has a large support base among the Mahar community, the RSS has engaged with the Matang caste groups.

The Eknath Shinde government’s move to appoint a committee to discuss sub-classification of SC quota was reportedly taken after the RSS pushed for it. A decision on sub-classification of SC communities is considered to have helped the BJP in Haryana too.

“If the Opposition used BJP leaders’ statements (seeking 400-plus seats) to campaign during the Lok Sabha, we used Rahul Gandhi’s comments on ending reservation during his US visit (Gandhi said the party could think on those lines only once society had achieved equality) to counter that. The traditional methods of the RSS were handy for it,” a source said.

Sources also talk about a quiet ‘Save Constitution’ campaign started by the RSS in August, or just three months after the Lok Sabha results. The ‘Samvidhan Jagar Yatra’ started from Mahad’s Chavdar Tale and wrapped up mid-September in Dadar. Chavdar Tale is the public tank from where Babasaheb Ambedkar began his famous Mahad Satyagraha in March 1927, seeking access for untouchable communities.

In the other poll-bound state of Jharkhand, the RSS enjoys a solid base due to its work among the tribals, and has mobilized its volunteers into small units in tribal-dominated areas. The effort is to reverse the situation from the Lok Sabha polls, when the BJP lost all the five-tribal dominated seats in Jharkhand.

One of the regions the RSS is focusing on is Santal Pargana, a JMM stronghold. The BJP campaign here is centered on alleged Bangladeshi “infiltration” pushing down tribal numbers, and the Sangh is magnifying this through its workers operating in border areas.