Poll results show how invested RSS is in BJP this time

Congress party leaders have often positioned the next electoral battle in 2014 as one between them and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and not the BJP. While this rhetoric makes sense in the context of the Congress’s efforts to drum up the Muslim vote, there is little doubt that the RSS has been playing a critical role in BJP politics – and a smart one this time. The most obvious exhibit was its role in hoisting Narendra Modi as the BJP’s mascot for 2014 – first as campaign committee chairman in June and later as prime ministerial candidate in the teeth of opposition from LK Advani and some others. In doing so, the RSS abandoned its own time-honoured principle of collective leadership – bowing to the demands of the BJP’s rank-and-file. The Sangh saw that Modi’s presidential style may be important to victory next year.[caption id=“attachment_1275161” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Getting stronger by the day. Reuters[/caption] The RSS’s role was also critical in neutralising the moves by Modi’s detractors inside the party to postpone the announcement till after the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan elections – a mischievous move in the context of what has actually transpired now. With both Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje trouncing the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively, and assuming both would have won anyway, one can surmise that there would have serious efforts to scuttle Modi’s candidature by positioning Chouhan as equally deserving of the honour – especially in the context of the need for allies after 2014. The RSS decision to back the Modi announcement even before the assembly elections was thus very prescient. The last thing the BJP needed was a lot of infighting after the assembly elections. Not only that, by making the announcement, the RSS ensured that the BJP’s state and national leaders were pulling in the same direction. Modi batted for all his chief ministers and chief ministerial candidates, and this may have made all the difference between a sweep and ordinary victory in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and between victory/near victory and defeat in Delhi and Chhattisgarh. The RSS-backed decisions involving the BJP are indicative of great political savvy. Where needed, the RSS put its weight behind the right people, and where required, it backed away even from its own people. This shows that the RSS is invested even more in the BJP’s performance – and is not pushing its own agenda at the cost of the party. Evidence of this is all around. Let’s start with the time before the Gujarat elections. In mid-2012, Modi made it clear that he did not want Sanjay Joshi on the BJP National Executive, and out he went. The RSS helped. Around the same time, Modi’s detractors in the Gujarat BJP split from the party and formed the Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) under another RSS man and former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel. Even while sections of the VHP tried to do mischief by backing the GPP, the RSS controlled the damage and stood by Modi. In Madhya Pradesh, when Shivraj Singh Chouhan wanted to put his own man as president of the state BJP, replacing Prabhat Jha with Narendra Singh Tomar, the RSS obliged Chouhan and advised Jha to continue working for a BJP victory in MP. Towards the end of last year, when party president Nitin Gadkari was under political pressure to quit following disclosures about his Purti group, the RSS was half-inclined to brazen it out, especially since Gadkari was hand-picked by it to head the party. But it clearly saw that fighting an election with a handicapped and uncharismatic leader was not viable. The Sangh swallowed its own pride to bring in Rajnath Singh. Singh, the RSS’s compromise choice as replacement for Gadkari, was acceptable to Advani, and he turned out to be another great choice for the simple reason that he comes from UP, and appears to have struck up a good equation with Modi. The road to Delhi for the BJP runs through UP in 2014. The buzz is that many RSS workers were working their butts off in Delhi to prevent a failure - and they almost succeeded. Clearly, the RSS has become more invested in a BJP win in 2014 than ever. It also appears to have developed sharper political instincts that go beyond raw Hindutva. It is showing that it can step in when required, and step back when it feels the BJP is better equipped to handle an issue.