Amid North-South rancour, RSS to build bridges in South to help BJP
Sangh will run campaigns with seminars and talks, involving intellectuals, to derail any attempt to create a geographical political divide that leaves BJP out
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is planning to build bridges in southern India with a view help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expand its footprint in the region and to overcome what is touted as a north-south political divide.
RSS leaders believe there is a deliberate attempt by some people to create a division between the people in the northern and southern parts of the country. They are apparently peeved by comments on social media platforms following the BJP’s loss of power in Karnataka in May and its sweep of three Hindi-heartland states in December, which the Hindu rightwing group says is aimed at sowing confusion in the minds of the people.
“We must not forget that Bharat is one, and there is no divide between the country on the basis of north and south,” an RSS leader told The Federal. “Some people are trying to create divisions. It is important that people are made aware of this… Bharat is one from the Himalayas to Ram Setu.”
The Karnataka loss in May this year took away from the BJP the only southern state which it ruled while the BJP wins in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in December left the Congress in power only in Himachal Pradesh in northern India. This triggered speculation about a north-south political divide.
RSS campaign
The RSS has decided to start a campaign which will include seminars and talks involving intellectuals to derail any attempt to create a geographical political divide that leaves the BJP out.
“It is important that people speak about it. We want to reach out to the intellectuals so that people end divisiveness. The south is incomplete without the north, and the north is incomplete without the south. We all must say that Bharat is one,” added the RSS leader.
With less than five months left for the 2024 general elections, the BJP is stitching together alliances in some southern states.
After the AIADMK snapped ties with the BJP in Tamil Nadu, the latter is working towards an alliance with smaller parties.
“It is the right of every political party to try and expand its social and political base. Now that the latest assembly elections are over, a renewed effort will be made to bring together like-minded parties in Tamil Nadu,” said a BJP leader.
While the BJP has joined hands with the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka, it is hopeful of strengthening itself in neighbouring Telangana. Similarly, the BJP wants to contest alone and expand its base in Kerala.
Southern India
The performance of the BJP over the past decade in the Lok Sabha elections suggests that it has been able to improve its performance in southern India in the last decade.
In the 2014 general elections, it won 17 of 130 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. Five years later, the number went up to 29. The BJP is also happy that it won eight seats and garnered 14 per cent votes in the just ended Assembly elections in Telangana.
But political analysts believe that the southern states remain a challenge for the BJP because, outside of Karnataka, it does not have a substantial presence in any other state in the sprawling region.
“The BJP did not win any seat in Tamil Nadu or Kerala in 2019. It seems the politics of Hindutva has not helped the BJP in southern states. The south remains a crucial challenge to the BJP,” said Ashutosh Kumar, a professor of political science at Panjab University.
