New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the fountainhead of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is holding a 2-day strategy-building meting of its Akhil Bhartiya Prachar Vibhag (publicity wing) on March 23-24 to mount a massive publicity campaign to help the BJP led by Prime Minister Modi returns to power. Making Modi’s continuation a prestige issue for the RSS, its chief Mohan Bhagwat has activated all its wings to mobilise the cadres for the campaign.
On the same days on March 23-24, a conference of the Bhartiya Stree Vimarsh is to take place at the NDMC convention hall near the Parliament House here to organise a door-to-door campaign by women in support of the BJP. Bhagwat had a lengthy discussion with BJP President early this month in Gwalior at the Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha, the highest decision-making body of the RSS, on ways for the RSS workers jumping into the poll campaign in a big way.
The RSS has always claimed to be a cultural organisation that has nothing to do with the electoral politics, but Bhagwat has sent out a clear message to the cadres that all RSS plans on rebuilding India of its line will collapse if the BJP government does not get re-elected as many programmes announced by PM Modi are still not completed.
The Sangh cadres will be asked to project the image of PM Modi as a strong leader to sustain the BJP’s post-Pulwama narrative and show how the poor have been the biggest beneficiaries of the schemes launched by him. The cadres will spread out to the rural areas to campaign side by side with the BJP workers, a RSS functionary said.
He said at the request of BJP President Amit Shah, the RSS chief has sent out a word to tone down the Dalit pitch in views of the upper caste backlash in the recent Assembly elections. A 10% reservation to the economically weaker sections (EWS) of the unreserved category hurriedly got passed by Parliament is aimed at a signal to the upper castes that Modi has many plans for them if he remains in saddle.
The RSS volunteers will not only focus on their traditional saffron bastions like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, but they will also lobby with force in the states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim where the BJP has not fared well in the past.
