The stamp of the RSS is clear on the first list of Bengal BJP candidates with at least nine of the 28 nominees known to have a Sangh background.

Over the last few years, the Sangh has been spreading its sphere of activities in the state, but its stamp on the candidate list has never been as strong.

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, who has been inducted from the Sangh, welcomed the trend.

“We have a lot of names as Lok Sabha candidates with an RSS background. We keep on requesting the RSS to send those interested in joining direct politics and they suggest certain names. The RSS does fieldwork round the year by convincing people to exercise their franchise and consolidate Hindu votes. Candidates with the RSS background will give us an advantage,” Ghosh said.

Sources in the party said the influence of the Sangh had grown significantly during Ghosh’s tenure in comparison to the two terms when Rahul Sinha was state president.

The growing clout, sources said, could be linked to the “stellar” growth in the number of shakhas run by the RSS across the state. Estimates suggest that the number has grown from 1,000 in 2012-13 to 1,500 in 2018-19.

The shakhas are Sangh’s daily karyakram (programme) units which are run across Bengal.

The shakhas organise various programmes to meet the Sangh;s objective of nation building from personality building.

A BJP insider cited the example of Birbhum candidate Dudh Kumar Mondal to highlight how the Sangh in the state played a role in deciding the BJP nominees. “Mondal was the party president for Birbhum between December 2012 and March 2015, before he fell out with Sinha. He was sidelined and hardly played any role in mainstream party activities. But he has made it to the candidate list and that’s only because the Sangh backed him to the hilt,” said the source.

Party sources said the BJP central leadership had sought tentative candidate lists from senior party leaders in the state. They also relied on internal surveys and inputs from external agencies before zeroing in on the candidates from Bengal.

Sources in the state BJP headquarters admitted there were murmurs of discontent at the Sangh’s growing dominance.

“On most issues, our views do not match as we try to think politically while the Sangh leaders are driven by different considerations, like religion… The state-wide rath yatra plan was an RSS-backed idea, which many of us in the party were not comfortable with. But we had to agree to it,” said a source.