After Mohan Bhagwat’s barbs, RSS to regroup with BJP for UP Assembly bypoll battle

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, June 15

After initial public expression of annoyance with the BJP, which failed to attain a simple majority on its own in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the ruling party’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is all set to bury the hatchet.

The RSS and BJP are gearing up to regroup in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Assembly bypoll in 10 segments in the state. While nine sitting MLAs won the Lok Sabha elections, another seat is set to fall vacant after the conviction of a legislator.

The bypoll will be the second major electoral battle between the BJP-led NDA and the SP-Congress bloc after the latter surprised the ruling party in the Lok Sabha elections.

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath is likely to meet RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat who is visiting the CM’s home segment Gorakhpur for a Sangh training session. The two are likely to discuss the political situation in UP and the way forward.

A few days ago, the RSS chief had publicly flagged the need for humility and self-effacement in politics, in remarks that were seen as targeting the BJP. On Friday again, a senior RSS leader said the BJP’s arrogance cost it the majority in the Lok Sabha. Signals sent, the RSS and the BJP are back together, with Sangh sources telling The Tribune today that all was well between the two organisations ideologically linked to one another.

Bhagwat is learnt to have instructed RSS cadres in UP to go “house to house” and disseminate the RSS message of social harmony.

“The INDIA bloc, apart from resorting to lies that the Constitution will be changed, played casteist politics in UP. The RSS approach has always been of inclusion, social harmony and cohesion. That is the message swayamsevaks have to take forward,” RSS sources said.

Though there was no official word on any scheduled meeting between Yogi and Bhagwat, the former is likely to meet the RSS chief, who will be in Gorakhpur on Sunday. The two may discuss the LS poll results of UP, where the SP won 37 out of 80 seats, the BJP 33 and the Congress six, and review the BJP’s sub-par performance in the largest state. This, sources said, was especially true because the BJP performed very poorly in eastern UP, considered Yogi’s turf. Out of 29 parliamentary segments in the region, INDIA bloc bagged 17.

The Sangh brotherhood will now revisit their poll strategy in UP. The state BJP is learnt to have tasked 80 leaders to review results in each LS seat and return with a report which will be discussed for a course correction.