RSS campaigns for Modi in UP to ensure maximum Lok Sabha seats

mangaloretoday.com/ India Today

Uttar Pradesh, April 5: Fifteen years after distancing itself from BJP’s poll affairs, the RSS started its campaign in Uttar Pradesh on March 31 (Nav Samvatsar), the beginning of the Hindu year, for helping the party win maximum Lok Sabha seats from the politically important state.

 

The RSS has formed teams in over 55 Lok Sabha constituencies. Earlier, the RSS members had taken out processions in major cities including Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur and Faizabad. Although RSS leaders avoided going on record, they confirmed their plan to organise door-to-door meetings in some localities of each district, besides public recital of ’Srimad Bhagavad Gita’, to mobilise Hindu voters.

In the meantime, the RSS has also formed committees from booth to constituency level to work independently for BJP candidates. Senior RSS functionary Indresh Kumar visited over a dozen districts over the last two months and held meetings with RSS members. He also attended a meeting of the Muslim Mahila Foundation in Varanasi on March 1 and sought its support for Modi.

The RSS leaders had discussed their election strategy in its Varanasi meeting from February 12 to 16. While explaining the change in the RSS strategy, a Sangh leader said the decision to participate in election campaigns depends on the decision of Sarsanghchalak (RSS chief).

"We used to work in coordination with the BJP during Rajendra Singh alias Rajju Bhaiyya’s time. But a large number of pracharaks complained to their seniors during the 1999 general elections that BJP leaders were making undue demands for cash and liquor to distribute among voters in rural areas. So when K. S. Sudarshan took over in 2000, he decided to distance the Sangh from the BJP’s electoral activities. But it was decided by Mohan Bhagwatji that we would work for the BJP without any coordination with its candidates," the RSS leader said.

When asked, BJP state president Laxmi Kant Bajpai said, "It is obvious that the like-minded organizations will work in the same direction. Otherwise, the RSS is a social organisation."