Chief Minister-designate Yogi Adityanath’s meeting with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at Madhav Dham, the provincial office of RSS, in Gorakhpur on Saturday, just days before he is set to take oath, has caused ripples in the power corridors.
Much significance is being attached to the close-door one-to-one interaction, which lasted for about half an hour during which Aditayanath is understood to have extended Bhagwat an invitation to attend the swearing in ceremony on March 25.
While RSS sources say the meeting was just a courtesy call, it is the timing which assumes significance. Political observers feel that the meeting was aimed at sending a political message to the party that Yogi’s candidature as CM has the backing of the Sangh and both are on the same page now, unlike in the past.
The Sangh is the ideological mentor of the BJP and its leaders admit that the outfit monitors the implementation of its policies and programmes every six months, wherever BJP is in power. The outfit maintains that the Sar Sanghchalak’s (Bhagwat) visit was planned in advance, well before the results of the assembly elections were announced and that he was in Gorakhpur to attend a three-day workshop.
“The Sangh Pramukh never discusses these things (government formation) in a one-to-one meeting. The Sangh has a clear hierarchy and system through which it operates and gives its feedback and suggestions to the top leadership in New Delhi,” said a source. This, he said, had already been conveyed to the BJP brass.
After the spectacular victory of the BJP in UP, the RSS focus is on reaching out to the Most Backward Class and Dalits, who were feeling alienated in the earlier regime. They will be adequately rewarded and the organisation is learnt to have underscored the need to win over these caste groups which played an important part in the BJP election victory in the state, according to sources.
Meanwhile, the UP BJP has invited all its MLAs to attend party’s legislative meeting on Monday in Lucknow. Yogi would be elected as a leader of the legislative party in the meeting in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
