Change is the new mantra for RSS

The change at the helm in the RSS on Saturday is an indication of an imminent change that is to follow eventually in all its Parivar affiliates, particularly the BJP.

The second rung leadership soaked in Sangh ideology is set to slowly regain the organisational command of affiliates under Dr Mohan Bhagwat, who shares cordial relations with the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani.

For the BJP, the development coincides with the imminent end of the Vajpayee-Advani era. The Sangh believes that neither the BJP nor the Congress-led alliances are in a position to get majority in the coming elections, and that the country would face mid-term polls anytime in 2011 or 2012 following untenable alliance at the centre.
The RSS, having set its eyes on the next polls, would set an agenda for the other affiliates, including the BJP, to steer, through a national movement.

Sources said the RSS would build up a national movement around the contemporary issues. Deviating from its strategy of steering one issue at a time, the countrywide movement would raise several issues at a time - from Hindutva to the economic recession. On Friday, the RSS made it clear that it is not going out of its way to support any political party, but wants its cadres to exercise their franchise in 2009 polls in favour of the candidates, who hold the country’s national interests supreme.