New Delhi: After delivering Haryana, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) took charge of Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly polls, and the “greater coordination” between the two emerged as a key contributor to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s spectacular victory in the Maharashtra assembly elections, it is learnt.
BJP won 132 seats in Maharashtra, while allies Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) bagged 57 and 41 seats, respectively.
However, a senior party leader said, while the RSS worked “tirelessly” in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand, several factors, including the one regarding “tribal identity”, took centrestage in Jharkhand, leading to the win of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
The Sangh Parivar and the BJP were purportedly “better coordinated” this time, unlike the Lok Sabha elections, when a large section of the RSS cadre had stayed away from election work, leading to a truncated tally for the ruling party.
This time, BJP and RSS held several meetings to decide on the election strategy and discuss the key issues. “The gap in Jharkhand was too big to fill. We worked as hard in Jharkhand as we did in Maharashtra, but in Maharashtra, the party focused on welfare measures as well as the Hindutva aspect. Also, there was a face—be it Eknath Shinde or Devendra Fadnavis,” a senior party leader from Maharashtra told ThePrint.
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The ‘game changer’ in Maharashtra
In Maharashtra, the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana proved to be a “game changer” for the party as women voters rallied behind the ruling Mahayuti alliance. “The fact that BJP focused on welfare measures, the Hindutva issue and coordinated with the RSS proved to be a lethal combination and worked wonders for the party,” a state functionary said.
The RSS took over the campaign activities at the grassroot level in Maharashtra, holding sant sammelans and distributing pamphlets, while BJP focused on firming up a coalition, including different sections, to overcome the anti-Maratha sentiment which was seen as working against the party.
ThePrint had previously reported how outfits with the Sangh Parivar had put in special efforts in their campaign for the Maharashtra polls, aiming to galvanise Hindus and consolidate their votes, following BJP’s lacklustre performance in this year’s general election in Maharashtra.
The BJP won just nine of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats. The Mahayuti, including the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, together won only 17 seats. The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) won a whopping 30 seats. One seat went to an Independent candidate, a Congress rebel, who ultimately aligned himself with MVA.
What went wrong in Jharkhand despite RSS’s help
In Jharkhand, parties within the ruling INDIA bloc—Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)—were pitted against the BJP and its ally, All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU). JMM won 34 seats, Congress won 16 and RJD bagged four. BJP was restricted to 21.
“The absence of a face in Jharkhand seems to have impacted the party’s chances as in a tribal-dominated state, the BJP was pitted against Hemant Soren, a tribal leader. The tribal sentiment played a crucial role, and clubbed with this, you had the welfare schemes of the Hemant Soren government, especially for the women, such as the Maiya Samman Yojana,” a senior BJP leader told ThePrint.
“As far as Jharkhand is concerned, local issues had taken precedence and at the same time, the fact that the party did not name a tribal leader as its chief ministerial candidate even after the Raghubar Das episode had put a doubt in the minds of the people. They decided to vote for a tribal face,” he added.
According to a senior party functionary, the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram—an affiliate of the RSS—had canvassed across the state, especially in the tribal-dominated areas, motivating people to go out and vote. “The job of the RSS is to ensure people come out and vote which they did. But you see even in urban areas, the BJP has not done well and votes have gone to RJD and Congress, too. All this is at the expense of the BJP,” said a senior BJP leader.
Another senior BJP functionary said that “poor ticket distribution”, repetition of many MLAs despite anti-incumbency and the inability to match the welfare measures of the JMM cost the party. “Putting a tribal leader behind bars is something that was not taken kindly by the tribal community at large. At the same time, this also led to Kalpana Soren, Hemant Soren’s wife, taking on the reins of the party. Her connect with women voters also had a crucial role to play in JMM’s victory.”
“Dekhiye party se Ram ya Raavan nahi decide hota, charitra se hota hai. Agar zameen par koi JMM ka candidate tha aur wo conversion ke khilaf tha toh usko samarthan mila hoga (It doesn’t matter what party the leader is from. If a JMM candidate was against conversion, he/she must have found support),” the leader further explained.
RSS affiliates have been raising the issue of conversion in Jharkhand for years. In September this year, the Akhil Bhartiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (ABVKA) had urged tribal communities in Jharkhand to wage a “war” against “Bangladeshi migrants” allegedly trapping girls in “Love Jihad”.
A section of BJP workers told ThePrint that had the RSS not cooperated with them, either during the campaign or on the day of voting, the result could have been much worse.
“Sangh had launched a voter awareness campaign in all assembly constituencies even before the elections. Some of the organisations linked to the RSS, including the Vanvasi Kalyan and Ekal, had issued leaflets on the situation in Jharkhand and appealed to the people to vote,” a state functionary said.
Yashwant Deshmukh, founder-director of research agency CVoter, told ThePrint that there is a “fundamental difference in terms of political aim in Jharkhand” as far as BJP and RSS are concerned.
“RSS’s aim is to work among the tribals and take them tribals under their Hindutva umbrella, and deviate from the fieldwork of conversion that is being done by the Churches in the tribal areas. That’s their fundamental core concern. From that perspective, RSS has always been of the opinion that the face of the state should be the tribal face,” he said, highlighting a key factor behind BJP’s poor show in the state.
“This is why Babulal Marandi mattered because he was an out-and-out RSS leader. He was the most successful, popular and honest face in Jharkhand politics.”
Deshmukh further explained that when Hemant Soren had become the chief minister for the first time, RSS had actually worked with him on the ground. “You would be surprised to know that there is no sense of animosity between Hemant as a leader and RSS. On the ground, they don’t see him as an enemy, but as a tribal leader. As long as that tribal leader is working for the unification of tribal identity and as long as tribals are not converted by the missionaries, RSS doesn’t have a horse.”
“They are not in line with making a BJP leader chief minister just because he happens to belong to the BJP. They have a larger aim and goal than the BJP. Not declaring Marandi as the chief ministerial candidate also had a lot to do with the ground support that did not swell up for the BJP,” he added.
Multiple BJP leaders that ThePrint spoke to rejected claims that the ‘illegal immigrants’ campaign had backfired and pointed out that tribals have, in the past, aligned with the JMM. The lack of a tribal face as a CM candidate did impact the party’s tally, according to them.
“As far as the Bangladeshi infiltration issue is concerned, we were somehow not able to convey to the voter how damaging it is and its ramifications in the future,” a leader said.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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