![\"RSS](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2024-06\/v5gb8q7o_mohan-bhagwat-and-yogi-adityanath_625x300_14_June_24.jpg?im=FaceCrop,algorithm=dnn,width=650,height=400\"\/ "\\"RSS")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nNew Delhi: <\/b><\/p>\n
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath – a senior leader of the BJP – and Mohan Bhagwat, boss of ruling party’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are expected to meet this afternoon in Gorakhpur, which is the latter’s Assembly bastion.<\/p>\n
The meeting – sources call it a “courtesy meet” as Mr Bhagwat is in the Chief Minister’s constituency for a RSS event, is to take place either between 2 and 4 pm or after the latter’s visit to the Gorakhnath Temple.<\/p>\n
The optics of Mohan Bhagwat meeting Yogi Adityanath are significant after the former’s speech this week in Nagpur; Mr Bhagwat’s speech was peppered with criticism about the way the campaign was conducted on both sides of the political divide.<\/p>\n
If the RSS chief’s comment was veiled, his colleague Indresh Kumar’s was not; he slammed the “party which did bhakti of Lord Ram (a reference to building the Ram Temple in UP’s Ayodhya, which was expected to seal a landslide win for the party) for its “arrogance”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The RSS, however, dispelled talk of a split with its political unit; sources said the message was just a pick-me-up for the BJP’s central leadership.<\/p>\n
And as for Indresh Kumar’s jab, RSS sources distanced the organisation from the comments and sought to flip it, declaring Lord Ram “stopped those (the Congress-led INDIA bloc) who became arrogant” at 241.<\/p>\n
For the 2024 Lok Sabha election the BJP had set itself an ambitious target of 370 seats (400+ with allies) to form a third consecutive union government with a brute majority.<\/p>\n
However, hobbled by a strong showing by the INDIA group, and pushback over policy issues, the party’s previously formidable election-winning machinery managed only 240 seats – 32 below the majority mark – and was forced to rely on ‘kingmakers’ Nitish Kumar and N Chandrababu Naidu to complete its hat-trick.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n