RSS pracharaks as BJP's state unit chiefs — exceptions or new trend?

When Kummanam Rajasekharan went to the BJP office in Thiruvananthapuram for the first time after being made the party's state unit chief, he prostrated before the portrait of Kuruvannil Govindan Marar before entering the building.

Like Rajasekharan, Marar too was a pracharak. A party leader from the state recalled that Marar, who became the BJP's state secretary, left behind just four sets of shirt and mundu when he died in 1995 at 59. Marar was loved by the people and wherever he went he made a party worker's place his home for the night, the leader said adding that Rajasekharan lived in a single room in the party office. Rajasekharan's "simplicity" reminded people of Marar.

In West Bengal also the BJP has nominated a Sangh pracharak Dilip Ghosh as its state president. In both poll-bound states, the party's strategy is aimed at increasing its vote share, for which it is eyeing Hindu consolidation. Party insiders said the idea of getting a Sangh person as unit chief not only ensured the backing of all Sangh Parivar wings, but also got the united support of all party leaders.

The BJP's decision to bring the two pracharaks into its fold as party presidents was dictated by the need for an acceptable face in the faction-ridden state units. According to a party leader, a RSS person comes with an authority and respect that keeps the unit together.

In Kerala, Rajasekharan, general secretary of the Hindu Aikya Vedi, a platform of Hindu organisations, has been in the forefront of several agitations to protect Hindus' interests. The BJP, which is trying to bring all Hindu outfits under its umbrella, is hoping to wean the ezhavas (OBCs) away from the CPM-led Left Front and cashing in on the Hindu resentment against the Congress's Muslim "appeasement" politics.

"Rajasekharan is one state president who has acceptability already. This will enhance the state chief's post," said his predecessor V Muralidharan.

However, according to sources, while SNDP Yogam led by Vellappally Natesan was backing the party, the Sukumaran Nair-led Nair Service Society (NSS) had some grievances with the BJP.

It was when the search for an acceptable name from within failed that the party and the RSS looked outside for a "well-known, acceptable and capacious" personality, a leader said. In Kerala, where the BJP draws its members mostly from the Sangh, the party is hoping to make major political inroads in the assembly polls.

In West Bengal, Ghosh, who was brought into the party as state general secretary in January this year, is trying to strengthen the organisation from the booth to district levels.

"I am still learning politics. My priority now is winning the elections... We are trying to reach out to every section of society," he said.

A party leader said earlier RSS pracharaks came to the BJP generally as organisational secretaries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first pracharaks to hold a government post as chief minister and Kushabhau Thakre, also a pracharak, was party president. From 2004, more pracharaks entered the party fold. Once a pracharak joins the party, he has to give up the "veya patra" or statement of expenditure, as advance money is given to pracharaks for monthly expenditures.