The entire Sangh Parivar, including even the supposedly cultural body Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is striving hard for the success of ‘Mission 272+’.
So much so that the RSS, which has always denied having interfered with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s functioning, has started openly exercising some control over the party.
It is refusing to allow even the faintest of doubts about PM candidate Narendra Modi, the face of the mission, making it very clear to BJP bigwigs – especially the old guard – that unity will have to be maintained at any cost. Everyone should rally behind Modi.
“Today, the nation expects a change… So, it is for us to play our role assessing its implication correctly, so as to bring about the change that will reflect the will and aspirations of the common people,” reads the annual report presented by RSS general secretary Suresh Joshi in the just concluded meeting in Bengaluru.
RSS joint general secretary Dattatrey Hosbole had told reporters in Bengaluru on the sidelines of the meeting on Friday that the outfit was proud of the swayamsevak Narendra Modi who has proved himself in Gujarat.
The Sangh is so much involved in this make-or-break general elections that it has asked its volunteers to assist their BJP counterparts in mobilising people, particularly the first-time voters.
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Also, efforts are on to bring back the old faithful, who may have turned ‘cold’ to the party and its ideology.
Leaders of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students arm, have been attached with BJP leaders in crucial states to supervise the programme to catch the voters young.
Former and existing ABVP workers – and also some professionals close to the Sangh ideology — have been mobilised to reach out to people in every booth.
They have been asked to visit every house to ensure that every member of the family is enrolled. They will go to them again to give them the voter I-card or voting slips. The idea is to connect and stay with the voter. The strategy has three strands – 100% enrolment and mobilisation of voters and highest possible turnout.
And to oversee this process, the BJP has deployed leaders with RSS backgrounds in every Lok Sabha constituency. This could also be an effort to influence the candidate selection procedure.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, another Sangh affiliate, has been assigned the task of mobilising religious leaders and priests – both famous personalities and those who are active at the local level – to convince the devotees about the change that India needed to have.
This process started with the Kumbh Mela at Allahabad in 2013 where saints came out in open support of Modi.