RSS chief to be on 10-day visit to Bengal in Feb

Kolkata, Jan 10 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat will be on a 10-day visit to West Bengal next month and hold meetings with the Sangh functionaries in the state during that period, sources said.

He will be accompanied by eight other RSS functionaries, including the RSS Sarkaryawah or General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale.

Sources said that this is for the first time that so many top functionaries of RSS will be visiting the state at the same time, therefore making it clear how seriously West Bengal is being viewed at by the Sangh authorities before the crucial state Assembly elections next year.

The tour will start from February 9 and continue till February 16.

Sources added that for the first three days, Mohan Bhagwat and the other top RSS functionaries will hold several rounds of meetings focussing on the Sangh's activities in different districts in the southern sector of West Bengal.

On February 11, Mohan Bhagwat and the other national functionaries of RSS will move to Burdwan in the East Burdwan district of West Bengal.

They will be holding a series of meetings there with a focus on districts located in central Bengal.

In this session in Burdwan, Bhagwat is expected to focus on RSS's activities in the tribal-dominated pockets in the different central Bengal districts.

On February 16, the RSS Chief will be addressing a public rally at Burdwan which will mark the end of the 10-day tour.

Officially, the RSS is claiming that the 10-day visit will be a routine organisational tour.

However, political observers feel that the visit is extremely crucial since it is taking place in the backdrop of the continuing political slaughter of the minority Hindu population in neighbouring Bangladesh, the impact of which is felt in West Bengal which has the largest international border with the South Asian country.