As number of shakhas goes up, RSS bifurcates its Kerala unit

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has split its Kerala unit into south and north divisions, citing an increase in the number of shakhas (units) in the State.

The south division is from Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam and the rest of the districts will be part of the north division.

This restructuring is likely to diminish the RSS’s role in micromanaging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)‘s campaign in Kerala, unlike in the past. Even then, the organisation is set to play a prominent role in facilitating the BJP to achieve its ambitious target of winning two to three seats from Kerala, sources said.

5,000 shakhas

Currently, there are over 5,000 shakhas in the State, and the RSS has plans to expand this to 8,000 by its centenary year in 2025. The neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka too have two units. The decision was taken at the annual threeday Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, the RSS’s highest decisionmaking body, which concluded in Nagpur on Sunday.

As such, M.S. Rameshan, S. Sudarshan, and T.V. Prasad Babu have been appointed as Prantha Sanghchalak, Prantha Pracharak, and Prantha Karyavahak, respectively, for south Kerala, while K.K. Balaram, A. Vinod, and P.N. Easwaran will assume these roles in north Kerala.

Posing challenges

Sources said that BJP Central leaders wanted to minimise RSS’s intervention in the party affairs in the State, particularly as it sometimes affects minority voter outreach. Despite the BJP’s perceived success in attracting Christians, its connections with the RSS, considered as a selfstyled Hindu paramilitary outfit, have occasionally posed challenges during election campaigns.

Simultaneously, the leadership feels that the State BJP had evolved into a fullfledged political entity and that the party only required the RSS for ground support during electioneering. This apart, it does not want the RSS’ obstructionist tendencies to affect any concerted efforts to poach prominent Congress leaders, to the party, the sources said.

However, some State BJP leaders are worried about Congress defectors joining the party, fearing that oldtimers will be relegated to secondrung positions. Already, former BJP State president C.K. Padmanabhan has expressed scepticism about the viability of “north Indian experiment” in Kerala.

T. VIJAYA KUMAR Smooth flight: A Hawk fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) flies at a very low altitude, with landing gears out, during the testing of the emergency landing runway on National Highway16 at Bapatla in Andhra Pradesh on Monday.