RSS hit the road, played key role in BJP's victory

Neither the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has ever admitted it, but the perception was that the latter was largely absent from the Lok Sabha elections, in which the BJP-led Mahayuti won only 17 of the 48 seats in the state.

- Pradip Kumar Maitra

But RSS cadres were busy in the Maharashtra assembly election in which the BJP-led alliance swept 235 of the state's 288 seats.

Dilip Deodhar, a former senior swayamsevak and long-time RSS observer, noted that following the BJP's disappointing performance in the June Lok Sabha elections, the RSS decided to play a more active role in the assembly elections campaign in Maharashtra. It appointed Atul Limaye, the former chief of the RSS's western region and now joint general secretary, to lead the effort. Limaye collaborated with prominent BJP leaders, including Union minister Nitin Gadkari and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, and with BJP leaders from Delhi, particularly from BL Santosh, the national organising secretary, and Arun Kumar, the coordinator between the RSS and the BJP.

Deodhar emphasised that the unprecedented efforts made by the RSS this election cycle surpassed the mobilisation even during the 1977 elections post-Emergency and the 2014 campaign that brought Narendra Modi to power. "The election was virtually contested by the RSS, not just the BJP," he asserted.