MUMBAI: Following the BJP's slump in Maharashtra during the recent Lok Sabha elections, the party's parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has demanded accountability from BJP leaders. The RSS has urged the saffron party to take corrective measures if they aim to regain power in the upcoming Maharashtra state assembly elections scheduled for October–November this year.
As per party sources, senior BJP leaders and state ministers, including Chandrakant Patil and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, met with RSS functionaries at the Sangh's headquarters in Pune to delve into the causes behind the saffron party's defeat in Maharashtra.
In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won just nine out of 28 contested seats it had contested. This marked a notable decline from their 2019 performance, where the party won 23 seats in Maharashtra.
In the meantime, its Mahayuti allies, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena won 7 seats, while Ajit Pawar's NCP secured a solitary Lok Sabha seat. Notably, Ajit's spouse, Sunetra Pawar, faced a significant defeat, losing by over 1.50 lakh votes to Supriya Sule, Sharad Pawar's daughter.
On the flip side, the Congress, which secured just one seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, saw a significant rise in its tally to 14 seats in this election. Additionally, its Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP secured victory in eight seats, while Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena faction won in nine seats.
Given the BJP's poor performance, the party's top leadership and the RSS have expressed concerns about its prospects in the upcoming Maharashtra state assembly elections. The Sangh has also conveyed that the current political scenario in the state is not positive for the BJP.
"Out of 288 state assembly segments, if the current lead of this Lok Sabha election is calculated, then Maha Vikas Aghadi is ahead on 150 state assembly segments, surpassing the crucial 145 figure, while NDA is leading on 130 state assembly segments," a senior RSS functionary told TNIE on the condition of anonymity.
"In the upcoming state assembly elections, the Narendra Modi factor will not be there. Besides, the current trend is unlikely to change. Therefore, BJP needs to undertake massive surgeries if they really want to bounce back in Maharashtra-like state," the RSS functionary added.
He emphasised that while the RSS can offer suggestions as a parent body, the responsibility lies with the BJP to implement these suggestions.
"It is true that the RSS head office is in Maharashtra (Nagpur), but it is not an easy state to convert into a saffron state like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, etc. Here, different pluralistic ideologies are there so its tough job for RSS to bring everyone under the Hindutva umbrella," the RSS functionary said.
"Apart from the Hindutva agenda, we do need social engineering. In this election, the BJP’s core OBC vote bank got alienated due to various reasons while the anti-BJP vote banks like Marathas, Dalits and Muslims got consolidated and that damaged the prospect of the BJP," he added.
Meanwhile, the Sangh's mouthpiece 'Organiser' has blamed deputy chief minister and Mahayuti ally Ajit Pawar for devaluing the brand of the BJP in Maharashtra. It pointed out that the Ajit-led NCP did not add any value and transferred its votes to the BJP smoothly.
