Usually a backroom player in elections, the BJP’s ideological fountain moves from the front only when the stakes are high enough
to break the ice
UP CM Yogi Adityanath visits Deputy CM KP Maurya’s residence with senior RSS leaders for a co-banquet
The RSS has big plans for its centenary celebrations in 2025 – plans whose success depends on the BJP remaining in power after the 2024 general elections. Top RSS leaders have always claimed that they lead a socio-cultural organization and do not interfere in electoral politics, preferring to keep their participation behind closed doors. However, with most BJP-ruled states igniting the flames of dissent and the second wave of Covid-19, ‘samanve’ (coordination) meetings between RSS and BJP leaders are taking place continuously. While RSS functionaries were quite visible on the ground during the recent West Bengal assembly elections, their participation has increased to several degrees in Uttar Pradesh, where elections are due early next year. “With 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, the stakes are very high for the BJP and the entire Sangh Parivar,” says a BJP general secretary. “The state that gave the saffron party its biggest victories in 2014 and 2019. Will decide what happens in the 2022 assembly elections…
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