RSS to meet this month to plan for 2019 as murmurs against BJP grow

The top leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will go into a five-day huddle in April to draw up the specifics of the organisation’s role in the-run up to the 2019 general elections, a senior RSS functionary aware of the planned meeting said.

The meeting comes in the wake of feedback from RSS foot soldiers and affiliates hinting at “growing disappointment” with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the centre and in poll bound states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

Although the RSS, the ideological fount of the BJP, asserts that it is not involved in electoral politics, it has decided to coordinate with the BJP and oversee poll preparations for the Lok Sabha elections as well as assembly elections in states where the BJP is in power, the person cited above said on condition of anonymity.

The BJP had not responded to HT’s questions till the time of going to press.

According to this senior functionary, RSS brass led by its chief Mohan Bhagwat will meet in Maharashtra’s Pune from April 17 to 21 for the brainstorming. It is not clear if the RSS bosses will invite the BJP high command to the meeting.

“There are several reasons for which the BJP government seems to be losing support-- these are mostly related to the economy, job cuts and the recent bank scams. The Sangh feels that there ought to be better communication between the party and the people, and these issues will be taken up at the Pune meeting,” the functionary said.

Topping the list of concerns is the growing coalition of regional parties readying to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will again be the BJP’s face for the 2019 elections. Regional parties such as the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), among others, are in the process of forming a federal front to take on the BJP.

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