New Delhi: The Congress’ new ally in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh held agitations for Ram Janmabhoomi and campaigned for Yogi Adityanath in the Uttar Pradesh elections. It, however, is “not just a religious organisation”.
On Tuesday, the Bajrang Sena, a little-known Hindu outfit, announced that it was “merging” with the Congress party. At the merger ceremony held at the Congress head office in Bhopal, state unit chief and former chief minister Kamal Nath was handed a mace amidst chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
“I have spent 30 years in Madhya Pradesh, and I only heard of them about a week ago,” political analyst Arun Dixit told ThePrint.
According to Bajrang Sena president Ranveer Pateriya, who started the outfit in 2013, he was earlier a member of the Bajrang Dal for a year. “But they didn’t let us work properly.”
“When we used to take out big rallies to spread the message of Hinduism, they used to ask us why we are doing such big events. When we used to organise blood donation camps or help accident victims, they’d ask us not go above and beyond our mandate. So, I came out of the organisation in 2013 and started the Bajrang Sena in Chattarpur,” he told ThePrint, adding his outfit has about 2 lakh workers in Madhya Pradesh.
The Bajrang Dal, the more established Hindutva outfit, contested the insistence of Patreiya’s Sena being a “true Hindu sangathan”.
“We had heard that there was an organisation such as the Bajrang Sena. But, it is not very popular here. The main Hindu organisations are those affiliated with the RSS and its shakhas. Some people launch organisations at personal level, but we don’t consider them to be a part of our movement,” Abhijit Rajput, a Bajrang Dal functionary from Bhopal, said.
“I didn’t know that its head was earlier with the Bajrang Dal. But if they are accusing us of not doing enough for Hindus, then why did they go join hands with Congress which never does anything for Hindus? It is true that the Bajrang Dal is more aligned with the BJP, but we don’t officially hold any political flag. The fact that this organisation has merged with the Congress means that they want to do politics, not serve the Hindu religion,” Rajput added.
On the other hand, Pateriya asserted the Bajrang Sena was a Hindu outfit but it doesn’t just talk about religion. In fact, he said, amongst the 11 demands made to the Congress — ahead of the merger — were fixing drainage into the Narmada, ensuring employment, farm loan waivers and investigation into the illegal sand mafia. The other demands include more gaushalas for stray cattle and better provisions for gau raksha.
Going by the conversation with Pateriya, the impression is that the outfit fell out with the BJP had to do with the party not “giving them enough”.
“We worked for Yogi’s campaign, we campaigned for the Ram Janmabhoomi but the BJP gave us nothing. In the 18 years of the BJP government, nothing has been done for gau raksha. But in the short time that Kamal Nath was the CM, he built 1,200 gaushalas,” Pateriya said.
“Before the election, our workers will go from village to village and tell them about these gaushalas. We will say that Kamal Nath is the true Hanuman Bhakt and that they should vote for him.”
Also Read: MP Congress is courting Hindu priests. But temple land promise is going to be tricky
Kamal Nath, the Hanuman Bhakt
While the Congress poll manifesto in Karnataka had declared that it will act against organisations like the Bajrang Dal, the merger in Madhya Pradesh with the lesser known outfit is more optics than anything else. As per party sources, it is yet another step to establish its main face in the state Kamal Nath as a ‘Hanuman Bhakt’.
“He doesn’t talk about it, but Kamal Nath ji believes that Hanuman ji has given him a second life by saving him from an accident. He has special blessings of Lord Hanuman,” Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson Abhay Dubey said. “The Bajrang Sena thought that Kamal Nath is already on the same path as them and, therefore, decided to extend support to the Congress in the upcoming election.”
According to party insiders, former BJP minister Deepak Joshi, who joined the Congress in May, orchestrated the “merger”.
Speaking to ThePrint, Joshi asserted that the “merger” was not just on religious grounds but for governance-centric demands as well.
“I have been working with religious youth organisations for a long time. After I joined the Congress, I spoke to the people of the Bajrang Sena and asked them whether they think their dharma is Hindu or sanatani. They said that it’s sanatani. So then, I asked, ‘what has the Shivraj Singh Chouhan (BJP) government done for sanatan dharma?’” Joshi said.
“Before merging, the Bajrang Sena presented a list of 11 demands to Kamal Nath ji. One of those demands is an employment guarantee in Madhya Pradesh. Another demand is weeding out corruption from all levels. Kamal Nath ji has a vision. They believe in that vision.”
Joshi said that next week, the functionaries of the Bajrang Sena will meet with Kamal Nath to discuss these 11 demands.
The crucial 5% Brahmin vote
The party is not looking to consolidate all of the BJP’s Hindu votebank but rather the 5 percent Brahmin population of the state, according to the Congress functionaries working on the poll strategy for Madhya Pradesh.
“In Madhya Pradesh, the OBCs are about 37 percent and they vote for the BJP. The SC/STs, another 37 percent together, usually vote for the Congress. The approximately 8 percent Muslim vote also goes to the Congress while the 14 percent upper caste vote goes to the BJP,” a Congress functionary said. “What we are trying to break is the Brahmin vote from this 14 percent that goes to the BJP.”
The Madhya Pradesh unit is also contemplating to borrow some ideas from the Congress government in Chhattisgarh, with a suggestion to Kamal Nath that a temple tourism circuit, along the lines of the Ram Van Gaman Path, be included in the poll manifesto.
A cow-dung procurement scheme like that in the neighbouring state may also be in the offing
In the meanwhile, the opposition party will continue to build Nath’s image as a ‘Hanuman bhakt’. The fact that he’s built a 101-ft Hanuman statue in his constituency of Chhindwara, helps.
“The BJP in Madhya Pradesh has a leadership crisis, while the Congress is following the Hindu wooing game plan. Basically, in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has become like the Congress and the Congress has become like the BJP,” Dixit said.
He, however, was apprehensive about how far this Hindu push would reflect in electoral fortunes in the polls later this year.
“Instead of anti-incumbency, which is actually very high in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress is focusing on its Hindu push. The party, as per me, will not be able to get those with the BJP for its Hindu party image on its side,” he said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: It’s CM vs ex-CM in poll-bound MP as Shivraj, Kamal Nath play ‘what promises did you fulfil?’ game