New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological fount, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have stepped up efforts to strengthen their campaign to coalesce Hindu voters and prevent a split on caste lines in poll-bound Jharkhand and Maharashtra, people aware of the details said.
Jharkhand will go to the polls in two phases on November 13 and November 20 while Maharashtra will vote on November 20. The results will be declared on November 23.
A senior BJP leader said
New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological fount, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have stepped up efforts to strengthen their campaign to coalesce Hindu voters and prevent a split on caste lines in poll-bound Jharkhand and Maharashtra, people aware of the details said.
Jharkhand will go to the polls in two phases on November 13 and November 20 while Maharashtra will vote on November 20. The results will be declared on November 23.
A senior BJP leader said the campaign, which has seen terse messaging from party leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is an attempt to “turn the tables” on the opposition’s “bid to polarise the electorate based on religion and caste as was done ahead of the general elections”.
The leader said the opposition’s “false campaign” that the “BJP is seeking a brute majority to alter the caste-based quotas” had adversely impacted the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls this summer.
“This time not only are we armed with facts and figures about the development agenda... but we also have a long list of what the opposition did to undermine democracy when they imposed Emergency; their failures to save minorities, whether it was the 1984 pogrom against the Sikhs or the exodus of Hindus from Kashmir,” said the leader, requesting anonymity.
The renewed joint effort to take on the opposition comes amid reports of the RSS and the BJP scotching differences over a host of issues including alliances and candidate selection.
“Having suffered (a dip in the overall tally in the Lok Sabha polls) because of their fake campaign, it was decided that Sangh and BJP cadre will expose the design to sow seeds of distrust among the Hindus...,” the senior leader added.
Although the BJP and RSS had countered the Opposition’s allegations, the BJP’s tally in the Lok Sabha polls fell from 303 in 2019 to 240 in 2024.
An RSS functionary, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the decision to counter the opposition’s “bid to polarise the minorities and the disadvantaged groups” was taken soon after the Lok Sabha verdict. Stating that the impact of the Sangh and the BJP joining forces was seen in Haryana, where the BJP bucked anti-incumbency to retain power for a third straight time. “In Haryana too, the Congress tried to split voters on the basis of caste. The narrative was that the BJP is anti-Jat and anti-Sikh...but we prevailed,” the functionary said.
The “perils of a fractured Hindu community” has been the mainstay of hundreds of meetings that RSS volunteers have held in both poll-bound states, said the functionary.
He said it was in line with the strategy to coalesce Hindu vote that BJP and Sangh leaders began their outreach and cited Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s slogan “batenge to katenge” (if divided, we will be slaughtered) as a case in point.
Adityanath had made the remarks in August as a call for unity, citing the example of Bangladesh where public unrest paved the way for the dismissal of the Sheikh Hasina government. It was, however, read as a call to polarise the Hindu vote bank.
The Sangh threw its weight behind the UP CM, with RSS general secretary Dattareya Hosable saying that whenever Hindus forget the spirit of their religion, it brings trouble, breaks brotherhood, destroys faith and culture. Hosable, who was addressing the media after a meeting of the Sangh in Mathura, stressed the slogan was intended to underline the sentiment of unity.
At a poll rally in Maharashtra on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of divisive politics and used the phrase “ek hain to safe hain” (we are safe as one), while in Jharkhand’s Palamu, Union home minister Amit Shah accused the Congress of wanting to scrap caste-based reservations and implement quotas for Muslims. At another rally in Jharkhand, BJP chief JP Nadda declared that “kids of infiltrator fathers and Adivasi mothers” will not be allowed benefits provided to tribals, if the party is voted to power.
Ajay Gudavarthy, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said the thrust on Hindu unity was more in response to the Opposition’s demand for a caste census.
“This is a direct response to Rahul Gandhi’s insistence on a caste census. This is not a reference to Hindu-Muslim polarisation but a reference to Gandhi’s insistence that Dalits and OBCs are not safe if the Constitution is not saved,” he said.
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