Top BJP brass seek RSS' help for Karnataka polls, meet leaders to chalk out plan

Bengaluru: Top BJP leaders, including BS Yeddyurappa and Union minister Ananth Kumar, have held a meeting with RSS leaders to chalk out the Sangh Parivar’s plan for the upcoming Assembly polls in Karnataka. “On 3 March, the Sangh Parivar held its annual coordination meeting at our state headquarters. Core BJP leaders, including Yeddyurappa, Ananth Kumar, Sadananada Gowda and others participated and sought the Sangh’s help for the state elections,” a senior RSS leader told PTI. [caption id=“attachment_522013” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BS Yeddyurappa. PTI[/caption] The Sangh, however, said it would not directly involve itself in giving electoral help to BJP, but have given freedom for its swayamsevaks (volunteers) to do so, he said. “The Sangh will not directly involve in helping BJP during elections, but Swayamsevaks are free to render services to any party that seeks help and it is but quite natural that the swayamsevaks will work for BJP,” he added. Asked whether the RSS has asked BJP to break votes of OBC and Dalits who may opt for Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, he said, “We neither suggested anything like that nor has the BJP asked anything on these lines.” On what sort of electoral help swayamsevaks would give to BJP, the RSS leader said they would try to inspire a large number of people to exercise their voting rights to elect the right candidates. “If democracy has to be strengthened, a large number of people should come in the open to exercise their votes to elect right candidates. This type of campaign our swayamsevaks will carry out,” he said. Apart from this, the swayamsevaks are free to assist BJP in office matters too, he said. Replying to a query, he said it was difficult to give the numbers of participating swayamsevaks, “but thousands of them will be helping BJP.” To another query, the RSS leader said the BJP workers,who also are swayamsevaks, have already started their work in this regard. In a recently-held meeting, BJP president Amit Shah had reportedly assured top RSS leaders at its headquarters in Nagpur that the party would certainly win Karnataka elections.