RSS chips in for BJP as AAP gives a tough fight

NEW DELHI: The Sangh Parivar fountainhead RSS is pitching in with all its might through door-todoor campaigns, IT milans and other programmes to reach out to voters and help BJP emerge victorious in the Delhi assembly elections.

RSS sources said the organisation got cracking in December, when it launched a fortnight-long registration campaign in the national capital to help first-time voters get their Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs). From December 1-14, RSS members went door-to-door and even helped many do online registration so that they could cast their vote in the next assembly elections. With AAP and BJP engaged in a neck and neck battle, the RSS network in Delhi can make a crucial difference. The Sangh fountainhead has spread its influence over all parts of the national capital through decades.

"RSS holds around 2,000 sakhas (meetings where physical exercises are done and discourses given by senior pracharaks) in Delhi. Briefings and assignment of work for the forthcoming elections is done through them," a Sangh leader told ET.

Delhi has been divided into 10,000 bastis (localities), 145-odd nagars (towns), 31 zilla (districts) and six vibhags (zones) by the RSS. The slums – where AAP has a good hold – are referred to as sewa bastis in Sangh parlance. RSS has also identified those bastis where no shakhas are held and has devised other means to reach out to voters there. Pracharaks are especially trying to reach out to women and the youth, RSS sources said. The IT milans-where engineers and IT professionals are told about why they should align with ‘nationalist forces’ have been a success, they claimed.

"RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat had given a call that all efforts should be made to ensure that ‘cent, percent’ voting takes place in elections. BJP handicap always has been that its voters – most of whom belong to the middle class and the trader community – often do not show much enthusiasm in exercising their franchise," a pracharak from Rohini said.

RSS members do not indulge in targeting AAP or Congress the way political parties do and refrain from name-calling. "We tell the voters that there is a need for nationalist forces to unite. Those preaching anarchism should be defeated," the RSS leader said. However, the reference to Kejriwal – who had called himself an anarchist – is obvious.

But the achievements of Narendra Modi and his government are often enumerated by RSS workers during canvassing. For example, those living in slums are told about how the Jan Dhan Yojana has been a success with the new bank accounts breaking all records and entering the Guinness Book of World Records. Good Governance plank of BJP and "Naari Shasaktikaran (women’s empowerment)" are also underlined by pracharaks.

RSS pracharaks avoid campaigning foraparticularcandidateandalsoemphasise on the voters not to be swayed by promises of solving their power, water and other local problems. "We tell the voters that this is not a municipal election. Do not get influenced by bijli (power), sadak (roads) and paani (water). There are national issues at stakeintheseassembly elections," the RSS leader said.