West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday directed the police to ensure that no riots break out when Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat is camping in the state.
“The RSS chief will be in Keshiari from May 17 to May 20. What is his purpose? Give him security and make sure there is no riot. The administration sent him sweets and fruits. He should feel that we welcome our guests. But don’t go overboard or else he might take advantage too. Keep a real watch,” Banerjee told the officer-in-charge of Keshiari police station on Tuesday.
She was once conducting an administrative meeting in West Medinipur district. It was attended by senior state bureaucrats, top district officials, neighborhood MLAs and police.
“The local MLA also needs to keep an eye,” she said.
Bhagwat is scheduled to camp in West Bengal’s Keshiari for four days where he will attend an RSS training camp. The camp will last for three weeks.
Political observers are of the opinion that the doings and actions of the RSS have helped the BJP gain prominence in Bengal in recent years.
The BJP made maximum inroads in Jangalmahal – a constituency that spans West Midnapore, Purulia, Bankura and Jhargram districts of South Bengal – in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when it won 18 of the state’s 42 seats. In North Bengal, it won seven out of eight seats.
While top RSS leaders in West Bengal refused to comment, the BJP attacked Banerjee.
“The riots are staying in West Bengal even when Bhagwat is not here now. Four RSS camps are being held in the state and RSS leaders along with Bhagwat will attend some of them. The police and its cadres are killing and raping people. She can’t handle them. A Bhagavata is an honorable man or woman and visits every state. It is not right for a chief minister to make such a statement,” said BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh.
In February this year, Bhagwat held a four-day meeting in Naxalbari, North Bengal. The RSS plans to install the devices in West Bengal’s Darjeeling, Kalimpong Hills and neighboring Sikkim, where the ideological fountainhead of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has almost no presence.
The RSS has about 1,800 branches in Bengal and about 450 of them are in the northern districts of the state. Much of this has been put in place after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power in the state in 2011 after decades of Left Front rule. RSS has three organizational zones in the state.
In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, however, the BJP suffered a major setback. The TMC returned to power for the third consecutive term winning 213 seats. The BJP which had set a target of winning over 200 seats managed to get only 77.