Ahead of crucial Assembly elections next year, RSS to hold its annual ‘manthan’ in Chitrakoot

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 28

BJP’s ideological fountainhead, the RSS, will be holding its annual ‘Akhil Bhartiya Prant Pracharak Baithak’ in Chitrakoot (Madhya Pradesh), close to Uttar Pradesh, where the saffron party is headed for its biggest electoral challenge next year.

Sources say the top brass of the Sangh will brainstorm on several important issues, including the forthcoming elections in key states, between July 9 and 13.

The Utter Pradesh Assembly elections are also expected to be figure in Chitrakoot, along with ways to improve the image of the Yogi Adityanath Government affected due to charges of “mismanagement” during the second wave of coronavirus.

Sources say the RSS is actively monitoring the situation in the key state to set things right for Chief Minister Adityanath and the BJP. The feedback from the meeting is also expected to help the BJP prepare its political pitch for poll-bound states, including UP.

Notably, CM Adityanath is also facing resistance from within the state unit amid murmurs of “lack of coordination between his government and party MLAs and MPs”.

Though BJP leaders deny it, it is widely believed that a recent meeting between Adityanath and Keshav Prasad Maurya at the latter’s residence in the presence of top Sangh functionaries, Dattatreya Hosabale and Krishna Gopal, was aimed at sorting out the differences between the CM and his deputy.

Sources say after a string of meetings between the RSS and BJP top brass in Delhi and Lucknow, it was decided to go with the incumbent CM as party’s face in the UP elections due early next year.

Meanwhile, the Chitrakoot meeting will also review the welfare work by Sangh’ affiliated organisations, including the Seva Bharti. ‘Prant (state) pracharaks’ will give details of the Sangh works, including campaigns regarding water crisis and environment conservation, the sources say.

The Sangh is making efforts to bring together environmentalists, organisations/NGOs working in the area on a single platform. The top brass will brainstorm and prepare a roadmap on preparations for the expected third wave and strengthening welfare work in different states, they add.

It is one of the three key meetings held by the Sangh every year. Apart from Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale, top functionaries, including Krishna Gopal, Manmohan Vaidya, and Arun Kumar, are expected to hold virtual discussions with ‘pracharaks’ across the country.