Congress ropes in Bajrang Sena ahead of MP polls

New Delhi: The Congress, which has been flaying the BJP for "fanning communal sentiments", delved into Hindutva politics by joining hands with an outfit called Bajrang Sena amidst chants of “Jai Shri Ram”. In fact, the Bajrang Sena merged with the Congress in a glitzy event on Tuesday.

The organisation’s merger into the Congress was orchestrated by Deepak Joshi, a BJP-turned-Congress leader whose late father, Kailash Joshi, was the CM of Madhya Pradesh in 1970. Joshi joined the Congress in May, saying he felt sidelined by the state BJP leadership.

The Bajrang Sena website talks about cow protection and anti-cow slaughter measures, the construction of gaushalas and a monthly stipend for temple priests. The outfit now claims to have branches in over 12 states and several lakh members across India. Ranbeer Pateria, a former Bajrang Dal leader, was among its founders. The merger, for now, seems confined to just Madhya Pradesh.

After the win in the Karnataka Assembly elections last month, the Congress is riding on a wave and in their effort to leave nothing to chance, they are going overboard. State unit chief and former CM Kamal Nath does not want the Congress to go into the impending Assembly polls later this year with an anti-Hindu image in the state. He is at pains to portray himself as a devout Hindu and his party as pro-Hindu.

Playing the Hindutva card to counter the BJP, Nath recently described himself as "Hanuman Bhakt" and has done several other things so that his Hindu credentials are not questioned.

The latest merger has caused a certain amount of unease among several Congress leaders. In Karnataka, the party had taken a principled stand and mentioned in its manifesto that it will ban organisations like Bajrang Dal. Many leaders feel that the party should not drift from the path of secularism, as it has paid dividends to the party in Karnataka. However, the other set of Congress leaders feel that the situation is such that the Bajrang Sena is merging with the Congress, which means they have accepted secularism and left their hardcore stand.

The Madhya Pradesh elections are also a prestige issue for Nath, as his government was pulled down when several MLAs left the party and joined the BJP, along with senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia. Hence, he is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the Congress returns to power.