New Delhi: The Congress’ new ally in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh held agitations for Ram Janmabhoomi and campaigned for Yogi Adityanath within the Uttar Pradesh elections. It, nevertheless, is “not only a spiritual organisation”.
On Tuesday, the Bajrang Sena, a little-known Hindu outfit, introduced that it was “merging” with the Congress get together. On the merger ceremony held on the Congress head workplace in Bhopal, state unit chief and former chief minister Kamal Nath was handed a mace amidst chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
“I’ve spent 30 years in Madhya Pradesh, and I solely heard of them a couple of week in the past,” political analyst Arun Dixit advised ThePrint.
In line with Bajrang Sena president Ranveer Pateriya, who began the outfit in 2013, he was earlier a member of the Bajrang Dal for a yr. “However they didn’t allow us to work correctly.”
“Once we used to take out huge rallies to unfold the message of Hinduism, they used to ask us why we’re doing such huge occasions. Once we used to organise blood donation camps or assist accident victims, they’d ask us not go above and past our mandate. So, I got here out of the organisation in 2013 and began the Bajrang Sena in Chattarpur,” he advised ThePrint, including his outfit has about 2 lakh employees in Madhya Pradesh.
The Bajrang Dal, the extra established Hindutva outfit, contested the insistence of Patreiya’s Sena being a “true Hindu sangathan”.
“We had heard that there was an organisation such because the Bajrang Sena. However, it’s not extremely popular right here. The principle Hindu organisations are these affiliated with the RSS and its shakhas. Some individuals launch organisations at private stage, however we don’t think about them to be part of our motion,” Abhijit Rajput, a Bajrang Dal functionary from Bhopal, stated.
“I didn’t know that its head was earlier with the Bajrang Dal. But when they’re accusing us of not doing sufficient for Hindus, then why did they go be a part of fingers with Congress which by no means does something for Hindus? It’s true that the Bajrang Dal is extra aligned with the BJP, however we don’t formally maintain any political flag. The truth that this organisation has merged with the Congress signifies that they wish to do politics, not serve the Hindu faith,” Rajput added.
However, Pateriya asserted the Bajrang Sena was a Hindu outfit nevertheless it doesn’t simply speak about faith. In actual fact, he stated, amongst the 11 calls for made to the Congress — forward of the merger — had been fixing drainage into the Narmada, guaranteeing employment, farm mortgage waivers and investigation into the unlawful sand mafia. The opposite calls for embrace extra gaushalas for stray cattle and higher provisions for gau raksha.
Going by the dialog with Pateriya, the impression is that the outfit fell out with the BJP needed to do with the get together not “giving them sufficient”.
“We labored for Yogi’s marketing campaign, we campaigned for the Ram Janmabhoomi however the BJP gave us nothing. Within the 18 years of the BJP authorities, nothing has been carried out for gau raksha. However within the brief time that Kamal Nath was the CM, he constructed 1,200 gaushalas,” Pateriya stated.
“Earlier than the election, our employees will go from village to village and inform them about these gaushalas. We’ll say that Kamal Nath is the true Hanuman Bhakt and that they need to vote for him.”
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Kamal Nath, the Hanuman Bhakt
Whereas the Congress ballot manifesto in Karnataka had declared that it’ll act in opposition to organisations just like the Bajrang Dal, the merger in Madhya Pradesh with the lesser recognized outfit is extra optics than the rest. As per get together sources, it’s yet one more step to determine its important face within the state Kamal Nath as a ‘Hanuman Bhakt’.
“He doesn’t speak about it, however Kamal Nath ji believes that Hanuman ji has given him a second life by saving him from an accident. He has particular blessings of Lord Hanuman,” Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson Abhay Dubey stated. “The Bajrang Sena thought that Kamal Nath is already on the identical path as them and, due to this fact, determined to increase help to the Congress within the upcoming election.”
In line with get together insiders, former BJP minister Deepak Joshi, who joined the Congress in Could, orchestrated the “merger”.
Talking to ThePrint, Joshi asserted that the “merger” was not simply on spiritual grounds however for governance-centric calls for as nicely.
“I’ve been working with spiritual youth organisations for a very long time. After I joined the Congress, I spoke to the individuals of the Bajrang Sena and requested them whether or not they assume their dharma is Hindu or sanatani. They stated that it’s sanatani. So then, I requested, ‘what has the Shivraj Singh Chouhan (BJP) authorities carried out for sanatan dharma?’” Joshi stated.
“Earlier than merging, the Bajrang Sena introduced an inventory of 11 calls for to Kamal Nath ji. A type of calls for is an employment assure in Madhya Pradesh. One other demand is hunting down corruption from all ranges. Kamal Nath ji has a imaginative and prescient. They consider in that imaginative and prescient.”
Joshi stated that subsequent week, the functionaries of the Bajrang Sena will meet with Kamal Nath to debate these 11 calls for.
The essential 5% Brahmin vote
The get together isn’t seeking to consolidate all the BJP’s Hindu votebank however quite the 5 % Brahmin inhabitants of the state, based on the Congress functionaries engaged on the ballot technique for Madhya Pradesh.
“In Madhya Pradesh, the OBCs are about 37 % they usually vote for the BJP. The SC/STs, one other 37 % collectively, often vote for the Congress. The roughly 8 % Muslim vote additionally goes to the Congress whereas the 14 % higher caste vote goes to the BJP,” a Congress functionary stated. “What we are attempting to interrupt is the Brahmin vote from this 14 % that goes to the BJP.”
The Madhya Pradesh unit can be considering to borrow some concepts from the Congress authorities in Chhattisgarh, with a suggestion to Kamal Nath {that a} temple tourism circuit, alongside the traces of the Ram Van Gaman Path, be included within the ballot manifesto.
A cow-dung procurement scheme like that within the neighbouring state may additionally be within the offing
In the intervening time, the opposition get together will proceed to construct Nath’s picture as a ‘Hanuman bhakt’. The truth that he’s constructed a 101-ft Hanuman statue in his constituency of Chhindwara, helps.
“The BJP in Madhya Pradesh has a management disaster, whereas the Congress is following the Hindu wooing sport plan. Principally, in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has develop into just like the Congress and the Congress has develop into just like the BJP,” Dixit stated.
He, nevertheless, was apprehensive about how far this Hindu push would replicate in electoral fortunes within the polls later this yr.
“As an alternative of anti-incumbency, which is definitely very excessive in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress is specializing in its Hindu push. The get together, as per me, won’t be able to get these with the BJP for its Hindu get together picture on its facet,” he stated.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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