RSS wants BJP to groom state leaders for polls

New Delhi: The BJP’s absence of “strong faces” to take on regional parties for Assembly elections in some parts of the country has concerned the RSS.
The RSS, which is the ideological mentor of the BJP, has expressed its concerns about both Delhi Assembly elections and for West Bengal where the BJP has not yet been able to finalise a face to put forward as a challenge to the regional parties.
According to an RSS functionary, “The BJP has somewhat given a walkover to the AAP because it failed to curtail its infighting and prop up a strong face to take on Arvind Kejriwal. Senior leaders of the party should have been able to iron out the differences and put up a consensus candidate, but they failed. How much can Narendra Modiji alone save the party? There needs to be strong local leaders and the party must work from now to cultivate strong local leaders in each state.”
In Delhi, the BJP could not come to a consensus for projecting a chief ministerial candidate despite holding several rounds of discussions with leaders in Delhi. There had been reports of severe infighting within the Delhi BJP with several senior leaders from Delhi wanting to be projected as the chief ministerial candidate for Delhi. The RSS, however, feels that the BJP which seeks to win the West Bengal Assembly elections slated for 2021 should be able to groom and project a strong face that could take on the “fierce” image of Mamata Banerjee in her own bastion.
“If the BJP has to win the Assembly elections in Bengal, the party will have to pit a very strong and local Bengali face to take on Mamata Banerjee. The BJP in Bengal cannot depend on leaders from other states to win the elections there. If the party fails to do so, even West Bengal, which the BJP has a very good chance of winning, would slip out from the BJP’s hands,” another RSS functionary who has been working in Bengal told this correspondent.