Ghaziabad hosts BJP, RSS’ four-hour-long ‘coordination’ meet

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) held a joint coordination meeting at Saraswati Shishu Mandir school complex in Ghaziabad on Wednesday with Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP state unit president Bhupendra Chaudhary.

The four-hour-long meeting was held at a time when the BJP is getting ready to name its new national president and state unit chiefs, including in Uttar Pradesh.

“It was basically a coordination meeting between the BJP and the RSS functionaries. It was a routine exercise and is taken up from time-to-time,” said BJP’s regional president Satendra Shoshodia.

During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had banked on winning a majority of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh but won just 33, while INDIA bloc partners Samajwadi Party and the Congress won 37 and six seats. This was a setback for the BJP, which secured 62 seats in the state in 2019. The next assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in 2027.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited RSS headquarters in Nagpur, his first since becoming Prime Minister in 2014.The visit is said to have put to rest speculations of a rift between the leadership of the BJP and its ideological fountainhead, which celebrates its centenary this year.

“The meeting in Ghaziabad was held for better coordination and was attended by 240 functionaries from the BJP and the RSS. The idea was to bond further before the assembly elections in the state and also before the election of the party’s national president and the state unit chief in UP,” said a BJP leader requesting anonymity.

Those who attended the meeting said that it was held in a very cordial atmosphere, and participants also shared their experiences of the Maha Kumbh held in Prayagraj.

“It was emphasised that functionaries from both sides should work hand in hand and with better coordination in UP. Some of the top leaders from both sides also had a one-on-one meeting. The stakes are high for the 2027 elections. If the two fight together, the BJP cannot be defeated,” said another person who attended the meeting.

The BJP has recently taken up organizational rejig by appointing 70 new district presidents in UP including the district presidents and the city presidents in the districts of Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar.

People who attended the meeeting said that the deliberations were also focused on the consolidation of people from groups such as SC and OBC. During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP faced a surprise result from the Pichda, Dalit and Alpsakhyak (PDA) narrative of the Samajwadi Party, and its ally, the Congress.

Those who attended the meeting included functionaries of the RSS and the BJP from western Uttar Pradesh. For RSS, western UP includes the districts under the “Meerut Prant” and “Brij Prant” while for the BJP it means 19 districts in the region.