More pracharaks to be inducted into official apparatus

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Central leadership has endorsed the decision of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) State unit to induct more of its pracharaks into the official apparatus to pursue its aggressive pro-Hindutva agenda in Kerala.

Sources told The Hindu that the anointment of a whole time pracharak Kummanam Rajasekharan as BJP State president had already signalled that the RSS would not only be at the helm of the party but also re- incubate its political wing. At least four RSS pracharaks would be roped in as office-bearers when the party would make an organisational re-jig, the sources said.

That Mr. Rajasekharan has been nominated to rein in the acrimonious factional wars of the BJP State unit and purge the anti-RSS lobbyists out of the party is now widely acknowledged. Sources said that over several years, the party leadership had drifted away from its core values by adopting a love-hate relationship with the RSS leaders.

They, however, added that it was yet a conjecture as to how a publicly acknowledged Hindutva hardliner like Mr. Rajasekharan could cope with the two groups, even if the party would be remote-controlled by the RSS. His sudden image makeover by meeting Cardinal Baselios Cleemis and prostrating before him after he took over BJP president had confused the euphoric hawks as well as the rank and file of the party, according to them.

Sources claimed that already a section of the present BJP leaders were piqued by the RSS pracharaks taking over party machinery. Normally, the RSS nominated an organisational secretary to the State unit. They believed that the ideological work and political work differed at many levels, even if the RSS had nominated Mr. Rajasekaharan to meet its electoral goals of cementing the BJP’s tie-up with the new political outfit Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) floated by SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan.

Sources said that there was also a feeling in a section of the ranks that too much of RSS hegemony may damage the BJP‘s fortunes in the Assembly polls which was barely four months away.

‘‘But the silver lining is that the RSS will marshal its resources for campaigning for BJP candidates and, at the same time, supervise the election funds strictly,’’ sources said.