RSS supports BJP’s campaign, focusing on corruption, pollution, and outreach to slum dwellers, traders.
New Delhi: After a huge victory in Maharashtra Assembly elections, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological backbone of BJP, is now in full swing to prepare for the Assembly elections in Delhi that are likely to be held in February next year.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is facing one of its biggest crises, with corruption charges being made against the top leaders, including former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, ex- deputy Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, and Satyendra Jain who all had to serve the sentences and are now out on bail, an issue that is being repeatedly raised by the opposition BJP and Congress, and has dented AAP’s clean image.
Delhi BJP, under the leadership of Virendra Sachdeva over the past few months has been raising the issues of corruption, pollution level in the air and in Yamuna, and Kejriwal’s ‘Sheesh Mahal’. They have also been visiting slum areas, a key voter base of AAP.
The saffron party’s Delhi unit is in full swing and is reaching out to slum dwellers via ‘Jhuggi Vistarak Campaign’, launched nearly four months back. It is also reaching out to the trading community, which had drifted away from the BJP in recent years, with Kejriwal belonging to the community.
Talking to The Sunday Guardian, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “We have been working on the ground for the past several months and have been raising the issues of corruption, pollution, Kejriwal’s Sheesh Mahal, and water and sanitation issues. For the last few months, we are working tirelessly to reach out to the slum dwellers who are facing the issues of water availability and sanitation. They still rely on tankers for water, and that is happening in the national capital. We are receiving strong support from these slum dwellers and the trading community.”
He also noted, “BJP Chief J.P. Nadda also visited slum clusters a few months ago. People of Delhi have no hopes from the AAP, and we are getting a very good response on the ground. Based on the ground situation, we are expecting that nearly two-thirds of slum dwellers are likely to vote for us. Similarly, three-fourths of the trading community is likely to support us this time.”
Sources privy to the details confirm that the RSS has started to prepare the ground for the BJP, and there are talks to organise thousands of meetings at the ground level, similar to what was seen in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
“We (BJP) are nothing without RSS. It is not just our mentor but our backbone. The Delhi BJP unit is in continuous touch with RSS, and we are regularly holding talks on how to prepare a ground ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections. Without their support, we cannot win elections”, a party insider told said.