New Delhi: Raising concerns over “major” anti-incumbency in Haryana ahead of the assembly elections, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has suggested to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to opt for fresher faces and not to shy away from dropping senior leaders in case of unsatisfactory ground report, ThePrint has learnt.
During another meeting of the RSS, BJP and the Uttar Pradesh government, the Sangh advised the government and the organisation to ensure better coordination and avoid passing unnecessary remarks against each other, BJP sources said.
These meetings also come ahead of the annual RSS coordination summit with the BJP and its other affiliates, scheduled to be held from 31 August to 2 September in Kerala’s Palakkad, where a host of issues will be taken up.
These marathon discussions in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh assume significance as they come at a time when the BJP has been seeking to mend its relations with its ideological patron.
The BJP is also aware of the fact that it requires greater and better coordination with the Sangh, something that was found missing during the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls as a large section of the RSS cadre stayed away from election work, leading to a reduced tally for the ruling party.
‘RSS, BJP, UP govt must work in tandem’
The Uttar Pradesh meeting was chaired by RSS Sah Sarkaryawah Arun Kumar and attended by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, BJP state unit chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and general secretary (organisation) Dharmapal Singh, among others.
“During the Uttar Pradesh meeting, the state BJP and the government were asked to work in tandem and resolve all their differences and focus on the bypolls, which assume a lot of significance after the performance of the party in the Lok Sabha polls. All the leaders have also been told to appear on the same page and not contradict each other,” a senior party leader told ThePrint.
The RSS is keen to set the house in order in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the bypolls. Discussions were held on how to counter the Opposition, which has been highlighting the issue of reservation and the treatment being meted out to the SCs and STs in the state.
The infighting and the tussle between CM Adityanath and his deputy, Maurya, had first surfaced during a meeting to review the reasons for its major setback in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP won only 33 seats in this year’s general election, compared to 62 in 2019, losing a chunk of the seats to the Samajwadi Party.
In the Uttar Pradesh meeting, the overall political situation was discussed at length and the need for greater coordination between the Sangh, the BJP state unit and the Adityanath-led government was highlighted.
“In both Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, emphasis was laid on ensuring the party worker is not ignored and is given his/her due. During the feedback, a number of workers had pointed out that they felt demotivated as those who had joined the party recently were given bigger responsibilities,” said the senior leader quoted above.
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Booth-level participation
At the Haryana meeting, too, which was held Sunday, ensuring better cooperation between the RSS and the BJP was a key point of discussion. According to ThePrint’s sources in the BJP, RSS leaders also strongly criticised the party, saying that if their advice had been followed, it would have won at least eight more seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
However, the leaders were also quick to emphasise the need to learn from past mistakes and work more cautiously in the future.
“The RSS made it clear that the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana will be contested unitedly, with active participation by RSS workers at every booth along with the BJP,” a source said.
A senior BJP leader told ThePrint that the RSS has suggested that even if one of the multiple surveys to gather feedback about the sitting MLAs suggests that their ground connection is not good enough, they should be dropped.
“We have to beat the anti-incumbency of 10 years, and though the CM has been replaced and a message has gone out to the people that a lot is changing on the ground, we can’t take chances,” the leader said.
“The results in Haryana will also have repercussions on Delhi, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also going to raise similar issues of unemployment, bijli, sadak, paani,” he added.
At the meeting, which was held at Kisan Bhawan in Faridabad’s Sector-16, a major suggestion by the RSS was to increase voter turnout in Haryana. Ways to increase voting percentage in booths, where the BJP had lost in the Lok Sabha polls, were discussed.
The state gains significance due to its proximity to Delhi, where assembly elections will take place next year. It was also suggested that there would be “direct involvement of Sangh functionaries on each of the seats in the state to ensure greater coordination”.
“Various organisations linked to the RSS will also work closely with the BJP and ensure a greater dialogue with the voters,” another party functionary told ThePrint.
Issues related to ticket distribution were also taken up and sources privy to the development told ThePrint that the RSS wants at least 70 percent of the tickets to be given to new faces to beat an anti-incumbency of 10 years. Keeping this in mind, the RSS has prepared a list of two potential candidates for each of the 90 seats, it has learnt.
However, the state unit of the BJP also suggested fielding senior party leaders. The party has prepared its own list with two-three names for each of the constituencies. The panels for the constituencies are to be prepared from the list and these will be sent to the central leadership for a final decision.
While the RSS is of the view that fielding new faces will be a better idea, Haryana BJP is of the opinion that the older party leaders are already prepared for the elections, and have been working in their constituencies for 10 years, which is why the public knows them well.
Sources in the BJP said the RSS leaders suggested that the party workers spend more time with the people to build trust. “All RSS-affiliated organisations will work together on the ground for the BJP. The BJP will ensure that every household is contacted at each booth. Workers will discuss both state and national issues,” a party leader said.
The two-day meet was coordinated by RSS’s Joint General Secretary Arun Kumar, who has previously served as the pracharak (campaigner) of Haryana province. Although Kumar left after the first day, he shared detailed insights on how the RSS could contribute and how the election could be won through better teamwork by the organisations.
The BJP also presented booth-level data from the Lok Sabha elections. It was observed that the party lost in 49 percent of the booths. There were 19,812 booths in Haryana, of which the BJP won 9,740. The remaining 10,072 were won by Congress and other parties.
It was observed by the RSS that in some of the booths where the BJP lost, the workers had not stepped out of their homes. In some cases, the families of workers had not voted. Additionally, urban voters, who were considered to constitute BJP’s core voter base, were lethargic in casting their votes.
“A sort of complacency, that the BJP would win anyway in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was clearly visible,” the RSS leaders observed, according to the sources.
They also said that if the suggestions by the RSS had been implemented in the matter of selection of candidates, BJP would have won eight Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. The margin would have increased on the five seats that it won, and three seats—Hisar, Ambala and Sonipat—could have been added to the tally. However, these suggestions were not implemented, the leaders said.
Incidentally, all three BJP candidates for these seats—Ranjit Singh in Hisar, Banto Kataria in Ambala and Mohan Lal Badoli in Sonipat—were considered former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s choice.
The meeting was attended by several Haryana RSS leaders, including regional RSS chief Pawan Jindal, regional liaison head Shri Krishna Singhal, regional general secretary Roshan Lal, and members associated with the organisation’s publicity department.
From the BJP, Haryana president Mohan Lal Badoli, state in-charge Dr Satish Poonia, election co-incharge Biplab Kumar Deb, state general secretary Surendra Poonia, Archana Gupta, and general secretary (organisation) Phanindra Nath Sharma were present.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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