Resentment in BJP over RSS role in party rejig

Resentment is brewing among the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cadre over the organisational revamp plan being executed at the behest of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leadership in the State.

Party cadres, who say ​that ​the proposal is arbitrary, are understood to have appraised their leaders of their plans to defect to other parties, mainly the CPI(M). But the Sangh leadership seems ​hardly bothered and is determined to pursue its charted course.

Party sources told The Hindu that the simmering discontent has boiled over in certain districts, mainly Palakkad, Kannur and parts of Thrissur, where camp followers have expressed their resolve to quit the party. They are worried ​over plans to ease out regional leaders holding pivotal positions for years and also sharing warm ​relationship with workers at the grassroots level. ​The unrest may spread to other districts ​over time, they say.

Careful execution

The RSS leadership is learnt to be carefully executing the plan that has evolved ​through a series of discussions, targeting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. On completing the revamp, the entire organisational machinery would be at its command and during the next Lok Sabha elections, it would be a virtual repeat of the campaign it ran in the recent local government and Assembly elections. Detractors within the party fear that those who refuse to fall in line would be ejected from the organisation​.​

Their bid to flag serious issues, mainly complaints about apportioning funds among the candidates in the Assembly election​, before the national leadership did not bear fruit​.

They are again gearing up to raise the organisational revamp now​. An RSS domination, they argue, would defeat the party’s attempt to project itself as a secular alternative to the rival fronts and also gain ground among the Dalits and other marginalised sections.

But sources familiar with the revamp say that it is aimed at bolstering the organisation by stirring it up to face the electoral challenges in advance. Warnings of mass defection have not swayed the leadership and it is not willing to ​retract from its course ​of action. The leadership, ​it is learnt, is unwilling to buy the argument it was the public ire against the United Democratic Front government which gave notable win to the party in the State. It also holds that stray defections would not have any impact on the organisation.