RSS leader targets BJP for arrogance

New Delhi: Senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar has targeted the BJP for its "arrogance" which caused the recent poll setback.

In a direct attack on the BJP, Kumar, who is No. 4 in the organisation and a member of the national executive of the RSS, lashed out at the ruling party, saying, "Those who became arrogant were stopped at 241 by Lord Ram.”

Kumar’s remarks come on the heels of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat calling the BJP arrogant earlier this week and an article in the ‘Organiser’, which is considered close to the sangh, levelling the same charge.

There is a view within the BJP that the ‘Organiser’ article and Kumar’s remarks were made after a nudge from the RSS. Reports of a rift between the RSS and the BJP over coordination, selection of certain candidates and election strategy have been rife since the commencement of the poll campaign. BJP chief J.P. Nadda’s reported remarks on RSS-BJP ties in an interview had also hurt the RSS cadre.

"The party which did the bhakti (of Lord Ram) but became arrogant was stopped at 241 but it was made the biggest party," he said, in an apparent reference to the Narendra Modi-led BJP which got 240 seats in the Lok Sabha. "Those who had no faith in Ram, they together were stopped at 234," he said, apparently referring to the I.N.D.I.A. bloc.

The RSS-BJP top leaders are likely to hold a coordination meeting in Kerala in August, where an introspection of the Lok Sabha polls is also expected to take place.

Further, Bhagwat has reached Uttar Pradesh and speculation is rife that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath could meet the RSS chief, who is in Gorakhpur. This would in the backdrop of the BJP losing ground in UP in the recent polls.

Efforts were made to douse the perceived tensions between the RSS and the BJP when a senior RSS leader on Friday claimed that Bhagwat’s remarks were not aimed at the BJP but at RSS trainees.