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The Sangh will invite people to participate in the Hindu Sammelan with a message of “unity & peace, efforts in development of the nation, and participation in panch-parivartan”.
The Hindu Sammelan events will be entirely managed by the Sangh cadres, and sources suggest that Hindus of all political affiliations will be approached “without any discrimination”. (Representational Image: PTI)
With the West Bengal election scheduled for early next year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aims to consolidate Hindu votes, which have remained divided between the BJP and TMC, and the RSS is expected to play a crucial role in this with the Hindu Sammelan in every ‘Khand’ in Bengal. Officially, this will be part of the Sangh’s 100-year celebration plan, starting soon after Durga Puja. However, it will also function as a grassroots-level initiative across West Bengal to “create a Hindu consciousness”.
Unlike the grand events typically organised by the BJP, these gatherings will be held at the mandal level and in ‘paras’—a Bengali term for neighbourhoods. These events will be entirely managed by the Sangh cadres, and sources suggest that Hindus of all political affiliations will be approached “without any discrimination”. News18 reviewed the action plan, which outlines how the Sangh will invite people to participate in the Hindu Sammelan with a message of “unity & peace, efforts in development of the nation, and participation in panch-parivartan”.
In Bengal, some of the Sangh celebration events may begin on Mahalaya, ahead of the national timeline of Vijaya Dashami. The Hindu Sammelans are expected to start by January 2026.
“RSS has been working for society for the last 100 years. We will be spreading the word in every nook and corner of Bengal. We will be holding Hindu Sammelan in every Khand, conducting seminars, holding discussions with intellectuals, engaging in two-way communication with people, and running ‘Griha Sampark Abhiyan’. Saints of the Hindu faith will be invited to speak at some of the Hindu Sammelans. We will also be utilising the ‘morol’ (a Bengali term for an influential person) in every village to leverage their influence,” Biplab Roy, the South Bengal Prant Prachar Pramukh, told News18.
The Hindu Vote Divide In Bengal
According to the 2011 Census, West Bengal’s population was around 9.13 crore, with Hindus making up approximately 70.5 per cent. In West Bengal, the BJP’s primary target audience is this segment, considering the strong allegiance of Bengal’s Muslim community towards the TMC.
In the 2021 Assembly election, the BJP secured a vote share of 38.1 per cent. Surveys such as Lokniti-CSDS indicate that despite a polarised campaign run by the BJP, it managed to capture 50 per cent of the Hindu vote share in the 2021 Assembly poll. This was a decline from its 2019 Lok Sabha performance, where it garnered 57 per cent support among Hindu voters in Bengal. Simply put, despite the BJP’s efforts, there hasn’t been a case of Hindus in West Bengal voting en bloc for the BJP, unlike in Uttar Pradesh in the 2022 Assembly election or in Assam in the 2021 Assembly poll. Instead, a significant portion of the Hindu community voted for the ruling Trinamool Congress in the last assembly election, where the TMC managed to counter religion with regionalism.
Will the equation change with RSS’s Hindu Sammelan? The RSS’s ‘no discrimination’ approach is significant in Bengal’s political landscape, where the BJP has so far struggled to win the Hindu community as a unified voting bloc. Additionally, linking the ‘Hindu Sammelan’ to ‘nation building’ makes it easier for non-BJP Hindu voters to engage with the Sangh.
Anindya Banerjee, Associate Editor brings over fifteen years of journalistic courage to the forefront. With a keen focus on politics and policy, Anindya has garnered a wealth of experience, with deep throat in …Read More
Anindya Banerjee, Associate Editor brings over fifteen years of journalistic courage to the forefront. With a keen focus on politics and policy, Anindya has garnered a wealth of experience, with deep throat in … Read More
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