‘RSS is unhappy that the state BJP has failed to deal with post-poll violence in a disciplined manner’.
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has stepped into Bengal to arrest the down slope of the BJP in the state, which is currently facing a major churn from both within and outside the party. The RSS held a consultative meeting earlier this week in New Delhi where the BJP’s Bengal president Sukanta Mazumdar, state general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakraborty and Bengal co-incharge Amit Malviya were present, along with other central BJP leaders and some top leaders of the RSS. According to sources, the RSS expressed its concerns and tried to dwell upon the reasons why the party is not being able to stand back on its feet since the BJP faced a defeat in the 2021 Assembly polls in Bengal. The RSS also expressed its concerns with the state leaders as to why the Bengal BJP was unable to bring back the thousands of BJP and RSS workers who have gone into silence since the May 2021 Assembly results. Sources aware of the meeting told this correspondent that the RSS was also unhappy with the fact that the state BJP has not been able to deal with the post-poll violence in a “disciplined manner”. The RSS also reportedly asked the state president and general secretary (organisation) of Bengal to reach out to all the workers of the party who had been affected by the post-poll violence and instil confidence in them. The state leaders have also been tasked with bringing back those workers into the party fold and making them work for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. There are still hundreds of BJP workers in Bengal who are yet to come back to their homes due to fear that they will either be beaten up or boycotted and some who have come back to their homes after the courts had taken cognizance, have chosen to stay away from the BJP. The reason they chose to stay away from the BJP is because they feel that the BJP deserted them when they needed the party the most.
Bengal witnessed unprecedented violence following the Assembly poll results in May 2021 where BJP workers were targeted allegedly by TMC-led goons. Many of those workers’ houses were torched, and many were beaten, which forced thousands of BJP workers from across Bengal to flee their homes and take shelter, mostly in the neighbouring states.
The RSS, in the meet held earlier this week, deliberated on the party’s poor performance in the tribal belt of Bengal, including areas like Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, among others, as the RSS had been present in these areas for the last six years and had been working with the tribals to uplift their lives and livelihood. This had also given the BJP electoral dividend in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, where the BJP won on almost all the tribal seats. But, the results in the 2021 Assembly polls indicated that the tribal voters had shifted their loyalty to the Trinamool Congress. According to sources, the RSS’ internal report also suggests that the tribal voters who once played as a crucial vote bank for the BJP has drifted away from them and this is the reason the RSS in its meeting earlier this week has tasked the Bengal unit of the RSS to re-establish contact with the tribals in these tribal belts of Bengal and ensure to bring back the tribal voters into the BJP’s kitty.