RSS plays a key role in BJP-led Mahayuti’s big win in Maharashtra

NAGPUR: 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 summer’s Lok Sabha elections, in which the BJP-led Mahayuti won only 17 of the 48 seats in the state.
But RSS cadres were busy in the Maharashtra assembly election in which the BJP-led alliance is leading on 224 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.
A senior RSS leader, who wished to remain anonymous, explained that in addition to door-to-door campaigning, the RSS engaged with leaders of smaller communities that are part of the other backward classes (OBCs), the Teli, Mali, Sutar and Banjara groups. They were convinced that only the BJP could provide them with adequate representation in electoral politics and welfare benefits. Limaye held numerous meetings with these leaders, this person added, fostering a positive environment among micro-OBCs amid attempts by Maratha leader Manoj Jarange-Patil to turn the dominant agrarian community against the BJP.
It wasn’t that the BJP ignored the Marathas, though.
Limaye and his team also reached out to various Maratha leaders, assuring them that the BJP genuinely supports reservation for Marathas, without categorising them as OBCs. They promised to pursue the matter in the Supreme Court and with the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, aiming to mitigate the impact of Jarange-Patil.
Gajanan Nimdeo, chief editor of Tarun Bharat, a Marathi daily and RSS mouthpiece, said that the strategic planning and inclusion of Gadkari, alongside Fadnavis, worked wonders in the elections.
A senior swayamsevak, who asked not to be named highlighted the RSS’s role in framing the narrative of “Dharmayuddha” (holy war) through Fadnavis after Moulana Sajjad Nomani, spokesperson for the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, called for ”vote jihad” among Muslims in Maharashtra.
Rights activist Mohan Kothekar, a long-time observer of the RSS, remarked that this narrative successfully consolidated Hindu votes, wooing back a significant portion of the Hindu electorate that had drifted away from the BJP following Rahul Gandhi’s push for a caste census in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Kothekar explained that Gandhi’s focus on caste dynamics resonated with backward classes seeking representation, challenging the BJP’s traditional support base and that by engaging OBC and particularly micro-OBC voters in this election, the RSS managed to consolidate Hindu votes in favour of the BJP in this election.
Who is Atul Limaye
Atul Limaye, 54, the joint general secretary of the RSS and the mastermind behind the Mahayuti victory, is an engineer from Nashik. Limaye left a position at a multinational company nearly three decades ago to become a full-time RSS pracharak.
Known to be a man of few words, Limaye initially worked in western Maharashtra, Raigad, and Konkan. He later served as Saha Prant Pracharak for the Devgiri Prant, which encompasses the Marathwada and North Maharashtra regions. This role provided him with a unique opportunity to closely examine the agrarian economy of the region and its socio-political dynamics. When the BJP came to power in Maharashtra in 2014, Limaye was in charge of the Western Maharashtra region, which includes Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa.
During his tenure as the chief of the western region, Limaye gained a deep understanding of the state’s political landscape, including the strengths and weaknesses of both BJP leaders and their opposition. He was instrumental in the appointments of several heads of educational and government institutions during this time.
Over the years, Limaye established various study groups, research teams, and think tanks that focused on a wide range of issues, from the demographics of Muslims and Christians to policy making within the current government framework. Their insights proved invaluable for the state government in addressing the Maratha agitation that began in 2017.