A group of former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteers on Sunday announced their decision to form a political outfit – Janhit Party – ahead of the year-end polls in Madhya Pradesh and said that the move will push political parties to improve governance.
“We have formed the Janhit Party as all political parties’ culture is against the basic values of democracy. All have failed,” former RSS pracharak Abhay Jain told reporters after a meeting with his ex-colleagues at Misrod, near state capital Bhopal.
He said that it appears outwardly that their yet-to-be-registered party will eat into the ruling BJP’s votes.
“Listen, we were not there in the last MP elections in 2018 when the BJP lost. Then the BJP votes shifted to Congress which is not in a good shape,” he said.
Jain said people are not satisfied with the BJP government’s functioning in MP.
“What will happen when we appear on the political stage? Those who are unhappy with the BJP but have a Hindu mindset will prefer us. If BJP loses five votes, Congress won't gain them according to political arithmetic,” he said.
“So much we know that our move will mount pressure on political parties to improve their governance,” said 60-year-old Jain.
Asked whether they plan to contest in all 230 seats in MP, Jain said they will think over the candidates to be put up for the polls. “Our political goal is not short-sighted. We have a bigger aim,” he said without elaborating.
Right now, the political outfit will focus on MP but plans to expand its footprint as per the need, he said.
Later, Jain told PTI over the phone that more than 200 people, including five from Jharkhand having RSS background, attended their meeting at Misrod.
He said that he was an RSS pracharak till 2007 and even worked in Sikkim. He claimed that he was still an “RSS swayamsevak”.
Another former pracharak from MP’s Gwalior and Rewa area, Manish Kale (55), said that he too participated in the meeting at Misrod. “I was a pracharak from 1991 to 2007. We still work for the uplift of the nation with the same ideology,” he said.
According to Ravi Dutt Singh, who was once associated with Bharatiya Kisan Sangh – an outfit of Sangh Parivar, he also took part in the meeting. He said the participants were the ones who had left RSS in 2007-2008.