By Arun Srivastava
Notwithstanding accomplishing significant organisational expansion in post assembly election period, the West Bengal unit of RSS was facing the incredible threat of committed Sangh cadres turning inactive and withdrawing from energetic participation in the Sangh activities. RSS was put in a piquant situation; whether to rejoice the lateral expansion of Sangh in Bengal or bemoan at the old cadres, committed to the Sangh ideology turning disinclined.
The latest RSS conclave in Burdwan of West Bengal as also in Kolkata on October 8 to 10 in the presence of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was in the nature of a review of the operations of RSS and the new BJP government in the state led by the Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. CM’s actions in the last five months were assessed and Bhagwat gave some piece of advice to the CM about his future functioning and how to effectively coordinate with the state RSS leadership.
RSS leaders cherished Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari embracing hardline Hindutva politics which he has been doing to appease the national RSS leaders. Adhikari has publicly noted that he attended RSS youth camps (shakhas) during his school years. Following the BJP’s success in Bengal, RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale had even commented that Adhikari did not need formal integration to be seen as part of the broader “RSS family”.
During his campaigns, Adhikari explicitly leaned into a polarized narrative, frequently claiming that Hindu voters consolidated behind him while Muslim voters supported the TMC. His aggressive anti-infiltration and Hindutva focus is often compared to the political style of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. In his desperation to project himself as the leader of Bengali Hindus, particularly the middleclass and Bhadralok, he has gone to the extent of publicly threatening and using state terror against the Muslims. Basically this has been the reason that Mamata’s TMC accuses Adhikari of being an opportunistic “strongman” and blame his political style relies on communal polarization to divide Bengal’s electorate and disrupt state stability.
Suvendu became the 9th Chief Minister of West Bengal on May 9, 2026. Leading the state’s first-ever BJP government, his administration has taken a hardline stance on punishing Muslims who according to him are the worst violators of law and order. He announced a policy of “zero tolerance” toward any form of hooliganism, specifically warning Muslims. He launched eviction drive for hawkers, which specifically aimed at the Muslim footpath vendors. He even warned of severe legal action against anyone attacking law enforcement forces.
Suvendu announced plans to implement strict laws following the planned rollout of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in West Bengal. Adhikari stated that within six months of the UCC, the state will introduce strong laws targeting “love jihad,” “land jihad,” and forced religious conversions. He blames Mamata’s TMC government for failing to curb communal violence in places like Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas
No doubt these efforts of Suvendu has earned him Sangh’s laurel, his design to give more prominence to the TMC deserters than they deserve, has been a contentious issue in the Sangh. RSS has been opposed to this strategy from the beginning but political compulsions made it to fall in line of Amit Shah. But once the BJP has come to power, the RSS leaders feel that this methodology must not be further encouraged. Suvendu’s political line was outright rejected by the RSS leadership. This tactics, RSS leadership feel, will encourage emergence of parallel power centre in the prevailing saffron ecosystem, endangering its basic character and ethos. It feared that Suvendu who was resorting to this tactics for simply consolidating his power and position may pose a serious threat to the organisation in future.
With the gullible judiciary, the Speaker of Lok Sabha could have by now given recognition to the 19 member Lok Sabha break-way TMC group, christened as the Nationalist Citizen Party of India (NCPI). But it is the reluctant attitude of RSS that stopped Speaker from going ahead. RSS leaders also nurse the view that split in Bengal TMC legislator group and subsequently the state legislative speaker recognising the expelled TMC MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the breakaway group has been against the ideology and public perception. This step might have eclipsed the political power of Mamata, but this has also the adverse impact on the old RSS cadres and organisational structure.
It is worth noticing that Suvendu exploring defections from the Trinamool Congress has not received the desired approval from RSS leadership, as was expected by him. The BJP’s central leadership, at the directive of RSS, has withheld approval for any large-scale induction of TC MLAs and MPs into the NDA fold. RSS has raised serious objection to Suvendu’s move and cautioned the BJP national leadership to desist from accommodating them inside the party system as it would dilute the party’s ideological coherence.
Suvendu met with Mohan Bhagwat who was on a visit to state to review expansion work and meet regional functionaries, for about an hour at the RSS office in PurbaBardhaman on October 8 but could not convince RSS chief of his gains and performance. Adhikari also invited Bhagwat to be the chief guest at a massive Gita Path (Bhagavad Gita recitation) program scheduled at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata.
Discord between RSS cadres and Suvendu stems from ideological differences over party expansion. The state RSS has expressed significant concern over Adhikari’s continuous push to induct large numbers of defecting TMC MPs and MLAs into the BJP. The RSS fears that admitting career politicians in large numbers without ideological vetting, dilutes the core values and foundational principles of the Sangh. Traditional RSS cadres who have worked for years in Bengal prioritize long-term ideological discipline and are against fast tracking “outsiders” into influential positions under Adhikari’s leadership, bypassing core organizational workers.
In order to assuage the feelings of the state RSS leadership Suvendu Adhikari had recently visited the RSS headquarters in Calcutta. RSS leadership strongly nurse the view that resurgence of Left and Congress and Mamata succeeding in her strive to consolidate her strength primarily owes to wrong and aggressive political moves of Suvendu who conveniently prefers to forget that the landslide victory for the BJP owes to the unprecedented, low-profile, and hyper-local mobilization by the RSS. Moving away from leader-centric optics and massive political rallies, the RSS and 14 of its affiliates executed over 1.75 lakh micro-awareness meetings inside homes, tea stalls, and temples across 250 constituencies. Sangh successfully managed to replace traditional class-based left consciousness with a cohesive Hindu identity across caste lines, leveraging civilizational narratives, women’s safety, and border security.
The 2026 election showcased a structural triumph for the RSS’s long-term micro-level strategy, which successfully consolidated a fragmented opposition electorate. While this strategy pulled traditional voters away from the Left Front, it left behind an fractured political vacuum where the Left is now attempting an organizational rebirth through youth leadership and grassroots labour activism. RSS publicly expressed pride in Adhikari’s leadership, was exclusively meant for public consumption. It did not reflect the RSS’s approach towards Suvendu’s rule.
State RSS leaders have conveyed to Bhagwat that the entire approach of Suvendu was to please the non-Bengali migrant voters. True speaking his policies have alienated the Bengali middle class and Bhadralok. Already these people have started repenting for electing the BJP to power. These Bengali voters have already started shifting towards the Left and Congress. They have also mellowed their criticism of Mamata, which is dangerous for lpong term survival of saffron ecosystem in state. The latest bonhomie between Left and Mamata is a major cause of concern for the RSS. This development has challenged the BJP-RSS effort to completely marginalize regional critics.
To effectively counter the resurgence of the Left and TMC the RSS leadership has decentralized the party functioning and carved the state into five distinct zones (Sambhags), earlier it had three major regional units, North, Central, and South Bengal, for effective administrative approach: Uttarbanga, Nabadwip, Bardhaman, Medinipur and Kolkata. The RSS has moved forward with a target to double its daily network of shakhas in West Bengal from roughly 5,000 to nearly 10,000. The new structural zones are designed to hold decentralized youth conferences focusing heavily on Gen Z and younger demographics.
The new setup allows full-time coordinators (pracharaks) to match the organizational footprint with localized growth. This exercise has been undertaken with an eye on 2029 Lok Sabha election and also to assuage the feelings of the middle class and Bhadralok. The RSS has historically structured its annual October organizational meetings, the Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal Baithak (or the Diwali Baithak), with a core internal goal: to bridge generational gaps, address structural shifts, and reinforce the morale of its senior and veteran cadres.
RSS leaders from the north, central and south regional units of Bengal presented reports on new branches and social programmes. If the sources are to be relied, the reports were highly critical of the functioning of Suvendu, which were virtually of the nature of censoring Amit Shah, the mentor of Suvendu. Insiders maintain that Bhagwat was also apprised of the fact that Amit patronage has turned Suvendu arrogant and abrasive. A major point of discussion in these border-adjacent zones is tracking social challenges, public relations exercises, and the security of communities along the India-Bangladesh border.
While the central agenda of discussion amongst the RSS leaders and cadres centered on expanding the RSS network in West Bengal to reach a target of 10,000 shakhas, the situation concerning Bangladesh Hindus attained quite importance and remained a critical anchor for the organization’s border-state strategy. While emphasis was laid on mustering global support for Hindus in Bangladesh, the RSS leaders maintained that despite facing atrocities, the approximately 1.25 crore Hindus in Bangladesh must remain resilient, stay united, and actively defend their rights. RSS leadership has explicitly promised that if Bangladeshi minorities choose to remain and protect their roots, Hindus across India and worldwide will extend complete solidarity and support.
RSS leaders raised awareness regarding how instability in Bangladesh directly impacts bordering districts. The approach involves robust public relations exercises and heavy community engagement to secure local demographic boundaries and build social cohesion against any external communal friction. While the closed-door discussions primarily targeted evaluating the expansion and restructuring of the RSS network across Bengal, sources indicate that the geopolitical situation and safety of Hindus in Bangladesh remained top priority issues discussed by leadership during regional strategies. (IPA Service)
