RSS enters Supriya-vs-Sunetra battle

PUNE: In September 2022, when India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman paid a three-day visit to the Baramati parliamentary constituency as part of the BJP’s ‘Pravas’ campaign to strengthen the organisation, she held extensive parlays with BJP and RSS cadres on expanding the party network and strengthening its base for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Back then, neither Sitharaman nor the BJP knew that its extensive groundwork would ultimately have to be put to use for a leader who was then in the opposition: Ajit Pawar.
Cut to Baramati 2024. As the Lok Sabha constituency goes to the polls with Ajit’s wife Sunetra Pawar as the ruling alliance candidate, both RSS cadres and BJP workers, on orders from the top, have buried ideological differences to work for Sunetra. One such order came on Wednesday when Devendra Fadnavis, during his Pune visit, held a closed-door meeting with BJP workers, and after getting ground-level feedback, instructed them to ensure smooth coordination with the RSS, citing the “larger goal” of making Narendra Modi PM again.
Baramati goes to polls on May 7. Sunetra, a newbie, is locked in a tough battle with three-time MP Supriya Pawar, whose father Sharad Pawar has been micro-managing Supriya’s campaign in the family’s five-decade-old stronghold and putting every possible effort into the high-stakes contest. The RSS, too, is reportedly leaving no stone unturned for Sunetra’s victory.
The cadres of the 99-year-old Hindutva fountainhead are focusing more on the urban and semi-urban parts of the constituency, such as Khadakwasla, Bhor, and Purandar where the RSS and BJP have a strong presence. In many areas, RSS workers have been visiting homes and distributing handouts with a message: How a vote for Sunanda will contribute to Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister for the third time. “It’s a fact that RSS workers are working hard for my victory. I have seen this at many places,” said Sunetra Pawar in a recent interaction with Hindustan Times.
BJP leaders, however, deny that the RSS is actively involved in Sunetra’s campaign. “It’s a fact that the BJP has put in extra efforts in Baramati to ensure that the alliance candidate emerges victorious,” said Rajesh Pande, vice-president, BJP state unit. “But RSS workers are not actively campaigning for her. What they are doing is appealing to voters to exercise their right in the national interest.”
A veteran RSS worker in Pune corroborated this. “Pune has around 500 RSS shakhas in the city, of which around 150 are in the southern part,” he said. “Through these shakhas, workers have been asked to go out and appeal to people to visit the polling centres on voting day in large numbers and vote keeping the interest of the country in mind.” When asked whether appealing for votes for Ajit Pawar’s wife was not embarrassing, given that the BJP had accused him of corruption, the veteran activist said, “We don’t tell voters which candidate to vote for.”
The RSS workers, on their visits to voters’ homes, have been touting Modi’s “achievements” like the Ram temple, the so-called booming economy, reduced cases of terrorism and the vision of ‘Sashakta’ (Strong) Bharat by 2047. Many are working behind the scenes to tackle caste-based polarisation. This was visible on April 17 when RSS and VHP workers organised shobha yatras from various slums in the south and western parts of the city, both being attached to the Baramati constituency.
Sunetra, on her part, is also ensuring that she keeps the RSS in good spirits. During her campaign visits, she has made it a point to visit old-time RSS functionaries. In one such meeting on April 1 at an old RSS worker Chittaranjan Bhagwat’s residence, she received a rousing welcome. “Our best wishes are with you. We will ensure 100 per cent voting from our area,” Bhagwat told her.
At another area on Sinhgad Road last week, an entire family associated with the RSS came out on the street, with diya-holding women stepping ahead to pray for Sunanda’s victory. Sinhgad Road comes under the Khadakwasla constituency, which is a part of southern Pune and falls under the Baramati LS seat. Besides Khadakwasla, six more assembly segments come under the constituency: Baramati, Indapur, Bhor, Daund, Warje and Purandar.
“We have a good network of karyakartas (activists) in the Khadakwasla segment. Based on the response seen so far, I am confident that Sunetra Pawar will get a lead of 1 lakh votes here,” said Pradeep Rawat, former MP, RSS old-timer and founder of the Patit Pavan Sanghatana in Pune.
The fact of RSS workers holding meetings with Sunetra Pawar has attracted much criticism against Ajit Pawar. ‘Meetings of RSS people are being held at the bungalow of the ‘New National President’, who shares the legacy of Yashwantrao Chavan Saheb’s thoughts. Should this be called ideological bankruptcy? Earlier, the RSS’s on-ground campaigning system, which made various accusations against Dada, is now moving on the ground for Dada. However, in the end, ideology becomes subordinate to power and selfishness!,” said Rohit Pawar, MLA from NCP (SP) and grandnephew of Sharad Pawar.
Whatever the calculations, the Baramati battle is not easy for the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. If Sunetra Pawar has numbers on her side on paper, the challenge for her is to translate that into votes, especially when the sympathy is on the side of Supriya Sule, who is being firmly backed by the rest of the Pawar clan. Besides, Baramati town has always stood as a shining example of Sharad Pawar’s development initiatives in rural areas.
During 2019, the BJP had made every effort to defeat Supriya Sule, but her diligence bore fruit as her victory margin increased from approximately 64,000 votes in 2014 to 1.54 lakh votes. In 2014, the Rashtriya Samaj Party’s Mahadev Jankar posed a formidable challenge to her, raising hopes within the BJP that Baramati could be won. BJP leaders, therefore, believe that if Sunanda manages to defeat Sule in 2024, it will signal the defeat of Pawar and his political legacy, perhaps marking the end of his long and successful career.
On paper, defeating the Pawars on their home turf is not impossible for the BJP, as two of the six assembly segments—Daund and Khadakwasla—under this Lok Sabha constituency are already held by the BJP. The party is also confident about winning the third segment, Purandar, this time around, while the fourth one, Indapur, could provide significant support to the BJP in its broader strategy, especially considering that Harshawardhan Patil is now with the party.
Is it feasible?
For decades, the BJP has never taken elections in Baramati seriously. Every time, the party would hastily search for candidates at the last moment, fielding them only to inevitably lose, often without even considering them for re-election, thereby neglecting opportunities to strengthen the party’s local unit.
Local political observers noted that whenever there was an election, the BJP would field a candidate merely to maintain the appearance of contesting polls and to deflect criticism that it was targeting the Pawars elsewhere but not in the Baramati seat. In 2014, however, things changed when Narendra Modi and Amit Shah reshaped the party’s strategy. Modi himself campaigned here, specifically targeting the Pawars.
But that was the extent to which it went.
After losing elections—whether in 2014 or 2019—the BJP paid no attention to the town or tried to improve its organisational structure here. In fact, when there were no elections, many senior leaders, including Modi, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu, visited the area and praised the Pawars for their vision of development that was evident in Baramati.
It is perhaps the first time that the BJP sees a strong chance of winning Baramati through Sunetra Pawar, and has thus roped in the RSS. The next couple of months will tell whether its efforts pay off.