How the RSS-BJP Turned Lok Sabha Debacle Into Landslide Victory In Maharashtra?

The whopping 132 seats bagged by the BJP in the polls is not an overnight skulduggery. It was the outcome of meticulous strategy and coordination.

Nagpur: After the BJP-led Mahayuti's landslide victory in the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly Elections, it's now an open secret that Devendra Fadnavis is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) first choice for the chief ministerial post.

The whopping 132 seats bagged by the BJP in the polls was not an overnight skulduggery. Understanding the five-month phase between the Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra assembly polls is important to get an idea of the grassroots work done by the RSS workers.

"For the first ten years, the Sangh Parivar had no control over Fadnavis. However, after the Lok Sabha results, he started working under the control of RSS," Dilip Deodhar, a Sangha scholar, said.

The results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced on June 4 and the following day, Fadnavis held a press conference taking responsibility for the poll debacle. He offered to tender his resignation and exit from the government to work in the organisation.

Deodhar said RSS became active at that time and on June 6, Fadnavis went to Nagpur, the headquarters of RSS where he had an hour-long discussion with Sangh's Sahasarkaryavah Atul Limaye and office bearers on the future course of the action. Following the meeting, it was announced that Fadnavis would continue holding his position and there was no question of resignation or stepping down from the government.

A series of meetings were held between the RSS and BJP for coordination in the upcoming assembly elections. Deodhar said the Sangh Parivar was working for the BJP daily. In the initial meetings, some organisations in the Sangh Parivar asked what the BJP gained by mingling with the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction). On July 23, a meeting was held at Yashwant Bhavan in Prabhadevi in ​​the Lower Parel area of ​​Mumbai between Fadnavis, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Sangh office bearers, Sangh Sahasarkaryavah Arun Kumar, and second Sahasarkaryavah Atul Limaye. The induction of the Pawar faction into the coalition was deliberated upon in the meeting. Amid the discussions, Pawar left for Delhi on the very night which compelled the RSS-BJP duo to tone down on him.

The BJP managed to soften the tone of the Sangh's dissatisfaction towards Pawar in the meetings held in Mumbai and Delhi on July 23. There were speculations that Fadnavis would go to the Centre where he would be made the national president and leave Maharashtra.

However, he made it clear that he never aspired to be the national president and remain active in Maharashtra politics, after which he started planning meticulously to put things in order ahead of the assembly polls.

On August 3, Fadnavis and Limaye met again in Nagpur making it clear that the former's role would revolve around Maharashtra where he would be BJP's prime face.

On August 9, a coordination meeting of all Sangh organisations was held in a Nagpur school where the BJP was invited as a part of the RSS family. Fadnavis represented the saffron party and delivered a 45-minute speech explaining the party's role, the problems in connection with the assembly elections, how the fake narrative was responsible for the dismal show of the party in the Lok Sabha elections, and other issues. It was decided in the meeting to activate all Sangh organisations to create a favourable ground for the BJP.

Before the elections were announced in Maharashtra, another coordination meeting of the Sangh and BJP was held on October 10 where it was discussed how the micro-level planning of the RSS-BJP duo that pivoted the party to victory in Haryana should be implemented in Maharashtra's case. Overall, looking at all these incidents, Deodhar also said that the BJP is always being helped indirectly, not directly, through the people of the Sangh.