Internal review of BJP’s poll performance results in UP blame game

Almost a week after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received a less-than-expected response from the voters of the country, the ruling party, along with its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is busy carrying out a review of the political results and trying to zoom in on the reasons for the unforeseen outcome in the electoral contest.

Back to old strategy

So far, the senior leadership of the RSS has met twice in Delhi, and it has been decided that the recent experiments introduced in election campaigns should be stopped and the organisation should focus on door-to-door campaigns before the polls.

“The feedback we have received is that door-to-door campaigns by RSS volunteers work better during the elections, as people have greater confidence in the workers of RSS than any other political party. The outcome of the election suggests that the recent strategies used in the Lok Sabha campaign have not worked with the people,” a senior RSS member involved in the review process told The Federal.

Focus was on raising vote share

In the 2024 elections, RSS members had, for the first time, organised different groups of volunteers who individually reached out to women, Sikhs, youth, first-time voters, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and General voters.

“The RSS is not a political organisation, so it does not get involved in election campaigning. But RSS members are free to campaign for anyone. This time, RSS volunteers worked with the specific purpose of increasing the vote share across the country. The RSS strongly believes that there should be 100 per cent voting in the country; so, the organisation works towards achieving it. Since RSS workers regularly interact with people, they give feedback on the outcome,” Dilip Deodhar, Nagpur-based commentator and observer on RSS told The Federal.

Squabble over Uttar Pradesh

Although the BJP could not achieve its targets in states such as Karnataka, Rajasthan, and West Bengal, the real worry for the senior leadership is the reduction of Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, which had propelled the BJP as the main political party of the country.

While several rounds of meeting have been held between the party’s state and national leaderships, there is no consensus yet on the reasons for the loss of seats by the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the national leadership have reportedly failed to reach an agreement on the issues that caused the loss of seats for the BJP.

What state and central units believe

“It is unfair to say that it is a clash of personalities between the chief minister and the national leadership. The disagreement is more about the role of the state government and the national government. The state unit of the BJP has categorically stated that rural distress was the single biggest cause of worry for the people, along with the problem of unemployment,” a senior BJP leader based in Lucknow told The Federal.

While the state units believe that farmers’ distress coupled with the issue of unemployment and price rise could be the possible reasons for the loss of seats in Uttar Pradesh, the national leadership of the BJP is of the view that the state government and the state unit of BJP should have managed the election preparation and voter management better.

Does BJP need RSS?

“The role of RSS in these review processes is a bit exaggerated. There is no doubt that swayamsevaks are part of the government, both nationally and in the state, but the RSS leadership does not control the BJP’s decision-making process. The BJP leadership can take its own decisions. The ideology of the RSS leadership and BJP leadership is the same, so there is no need for the RSS to keep a day-to-day track of BJP,” Deodhar added.

During the election review, senior BJP leaders acknowledged that the recently-concluded elections were the first to have little or no coordination between BJP workers and RSS volunteers. Most RSS workers have said in their feedback that in many constituencies, they did not fully come out to help the BJP.

“The BJP is a fully functional and fully grown political organisation. It no longer needs directions from the RSS. There was a time when the BJP was not capable, but now it is the largest political organisation in the country. So, there is no need for handholding by the RSS. Now BJP is capable of handling their election campaign,” Deodhar added.

BJP-RSS divide out in the open

But political analysts believe that the tussle between the BJP leadership and the RSS has now come out in the open, with the recent statements of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat clearly indicating that all is not hunky dory between their leaderships.

“The statements of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat are revealing about the problems with the BJP. The RSS leadership has clearly not liked the working style of the BJP and its leadership. The review of election results further creates problems between the two organisations because the BJP national leadership will not take responsibility for the loss of seats,” Ashutosh Kumar, political science professor at the Panjab University, told The Federal.