RSS to draw up Bengal blueprint in December during Mohan Bhagwat’s visit

Senior RSS functionaries from all over Bengal will undergo organisational training during that period.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will finalise its Bengal plan during a five-day visit of its chief Mohan Bhagwat to Kolkata in December. The plan is important as BJP has earmarked Bengal as one of its focus states in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and party president Amit shah wants to wrest 22 seats out of 42 in the state. Currently, it has a meagre two.

In December Mohan Bhagwat is expected to stay for five days in Bengal. Usually he stays for two to three days.(HT Photo)

Bhagwat’s visit scheduled over five days will be unusually long compared to the two to three days that he normally spends during his annual visit to Bengal.

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Senior RSS functionaries from all over the state will undergo organisational training during that period. Bhagwat will also visit Bengal for a day on October 3, in connection with the work of an NGO. All senior RSS officer bearers from south Bengal will meet him on that day too.

Mohan Bhagwat’s visit in December and the Bengal plan of RSS will be important in view of the BJP’s focus on Bengal in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls where the party wants to improve its current tally of two seats out of 42 in the state. (HT Photo)

This visit will precede Sangh’s national executive meeting that is called Deepavali Baithak scheduled to be held in Bhopal in October. In this meeting, senior Sangh functionaries will deliberate on the plan for Bengal. About a dozen RSS organisers will participate in this meeting in Bhopal, where the primary blueprint will be worked out.

“The matters that will be discussed in Bhopal will include the impact of Ram Navami in the state, the work of RSS in organising flood relief in different flood-affected north Bengal districts, a football tournament commemorating the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s Chicago speech, recent communal clashes in the state including Basirhat and Shastra puja to be organised in Bengal on Bijoya Dasami,” a RSS leader in Bengal told HT.

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RSS will organise Shastra Puja (or weapon’s worship) on Bijoya Dashami on September 30. Bajrang Dal will organise Trishul Diksha on Astami/Navami (September 28-29) by Viswa Hindu Parishad.

Sangh leaders apprehend that incidents of communal tension may rise in the state during the Durga Puja-Muharram and all that will be discussed in the Bhopal meeting. Incidentally, Muharram is on October 1, the day after Vijaya Dasami, the day of immersion of Durga idols.

During his five-day trip in December to Kolkata, Bhagwat will tell the Sangh leaders how to implement the plan in Bengal.

In January 2018, senior Sangh leader Bhaiyyaji Joshi will come to north Bengal in a follow-up visit.