The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is set to launch a month-long drive to reach over 2.5 lakh youths across Bengal, spreading its ideology of nationalism through cultural and educational activities, amid a surge of interest in the organisation since the BJP’s first government took office.
The drive is likely to begin in mid-August and run till the second week of September, with the Sangh organising small programmes for youths in every gram panchayat and municipal ward across the state.
“The people of Bengal are nationalists, and that sense of nationalism has become even more pronounced after the change. Through special programmes for the youth in both villages and towns, we will work to inspire over 2.5 lakh young people with a nationalist ideology,” said Biplab Roy, the RSS’s Dakshinbanga Prant Prachar Pramukh.
Part of the Sangh’s centenary celebrations, the drive focuses on introducing youths to traditional culture and nationalist ideology, after thousands aged 20 to 35 expressed interest in joining. A source said nearly 25 lakh people from Bengal, including many youths, had applied through the Sangh’s online platform since the May 4 election result. The RSS has also been targeting students, including those in engineering and medical colleges, to draw them into the Sangh Parivar.
The rush is visible on the ground too, with attendance at Sakhas — the daily assemblies — rising sharply. An RSS activist in Barrackpore offered a snapshot: on May 2, two days before the results, only four people attended the local Sakha. By the end of June, that number had climbed to 35-40.
Before the elections, the RSS ran a little over 4,500 Sakha (daily), Milan (weekly) and Mandali (monthly) assemblies across the state. A source said this number had already doubled in most districts, with the final count to be tallied on Mahalaya, when the RSS traditionally holds marches and assemblies statewide.
“Though there is no target, the rush to join the RSS has been sending a clear indication that this time the number of such assemblies will be at least double and may be three times higher than last year, breaking the record,” said another RSS leader.
The Sangh sees the drive as an effort to reclaim youths it believes were “corrupted” under the Trinamool Congress regime. A leader said many young people had been reduced to tools for local leaders’ extortion rackets, diverted from genuine opportunities for growth.
“The youths of Bengal deserved more. We wanted to see industries come up so that educated youths would be employed in those units. Rural youths would get work in micro or small industrial clusters in their localities and take rural arts and crafts to people across the globe. But instead, those youths were being ruined by being given money to purchase liquor and oil for motorbikes,” said Jisnu Basu, RSS’s purba kshetra prachar pramukh.
With the new government in place, the RSS is hopeful of reversing this damage through employment drives, skill-training camps and startup support.
Rather than formal training camps, the outreach will lean on quiz contests, sports, short lectures and singing competitions. “Suppose 100 youths participate in the outreach drive from a particular gram panchayat. We can hold a quiz on Swami Vivekananda among them. We can organise a competition to see how many people can sing the Vande Mataram in full,” a source explained.
The RSS’s role in the recent Assembly elections was pivotal. Beyond the visible campaign, it quietly drove a grassroots push for Hindu consolidation ahead of the 2026 polls — a contribution BJP leaders privately admit was decisive to the victory.