RSS, BJP leaders to brainstorm on Lok Sabha polls at Ujjain meet

 Senior BJP leaders will brainstorm on their strategy for the 2019 general elections with the top brass of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at a three-day coordination meeting in Ujjain from Wednesday.

The meet – called the Samanvay Baithak – is expected to be attended by BJP president Amit Shah and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, among others. Issues such as the agrarian crisis and flagging economy are likely to come up for discussion at the meet.

This will be the second such meeting in less than a month. BJP leaders such as Shah and Arun Jaitley had met RSS functionaries soon after the results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly polls were announced in December.

Although the meeting was dubbed as a “routine exercise” meant to facilitate an exchange of ideas between the two organisations, insiders said it will focus on the voting public’s response to the government’s policies.

“Reports will be presented by representatives of various RSS offshoots, such as the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the Laghu Udyog Bharti and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), which have been flagging concerns over the state of economy, the impact of policies such as demonetisation and GST, and farmers’ distress. This exchange gives all the organisations – including the BJP – a chance to make amends and chart out a roadmap,” a source said.

The BMS and BKS want the government to revisit its economic policies and focus on employment generation. Although the BJP maintains that demonetisation helped curb black-money hoarding, terror-funding and counterfeit currency, the BMS has repeatedly underlined how the surprise measure affected small-scale businesspersons and daily wage workers aversely. They have also criticised the government’s policy of relaxing foreign direct investment norms.