gfiles magazine

February 10, 2017

UP results “Reserved”

bjp and rss tussle

No, not another court verdict to reserve the UP election results. It is RSS again this time, repeating a Bihar. Two senior leaders of the RSS, Vaidya and Dattatreya Hosbole condemned the reservation policy in strong words at the Jaipur Literary Festival but quickly issued a clarification that the RSS is against reservation on religious basis. But the damage was done. BJP leaders went into a huddle and rushed to the RSS chief asking him to pull up the erring juniors, which he promptly refused. At one point, the BJP decided to use its social media network and innumerable trolls to ‘teach a lesson’ to the RSS. But the troll handlers developed cold feet, many of them owing allegiance to the parent body, forcing the BJP to abandon the plan. Vaidya, in his earlier avatar as chief of RSS Gujarat unit had stepped on Modi’s toes. That is the nearest he could go to Modi, who promptly got him kicked out of state politics. Smarting under this insult, Vaidya was waiting for the right moment to strike. He is said to have found a willing partner in Dattatreya Hosbole, the young ABVP activist, now holding a position in RSS. Hosbole who wanted to be the RSS pointsman for BJP was dropped at the last moment under Modi’s pressure, ostensibly to keep the ABVP out of political decision-making. Interestingly, it was ABVP activists who made Vajpayee’s life miserable with the help of RSS veteran Gurumrty, then Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) leader. In the bargain, one top Thakur leader is said to have squeezed the most out of the ticket distribution saying dalit and Muslim votes are as good as gone. And here one thought, the days of caste politics are over. Obviously not.


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