The RSS played a quiet but important role in helping the NDA secure a sweeping victory in the Bihar Assembly elections this year.
While the campaign on the surface was led by the BJP, JD(U), LJP(RV) and other alliance partners, insiders from both the RSS and the BJP say that the Sangh’s groundwork, especially in districts with complex social equations, gave the alliance a strong edge.
Their strategy was built around simple but powerful themes: “sushasan aur vikas” (good governance and development).
According to the media reports, the RSS deployed at least 100 volunteers in each of Bihar’s 38 districts, working through its network of affiliated organisations. Along with them, nearly 5,000 ABVP members were divided into small teams of five and sent to different parts of the state. These groups worked silently, often from early morning until late at night, especially in the last two weeks before the first phase of voting.
This push helped the NDA improve its vote share across most constituencies when compared to the 2020 elections. That year, some NDA partners, such as the then-undivided Lok Janshakti Party and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, had contested separately. This time, with everyone on one side, the RSS put its weight behind all alliance candidates.
RSS sources pointed to significant increments in the vote share of all NDA parties in the seat that each contested: the BJP’s from 42.56% in 2020 to 48.44% this time, the Janata Dal (United)’s 46.2% up from 32.83%, the LJP(RV) from 10.26% to 43.18%, the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) climbing from 32.28% to 48.39%, and the RLM to 41.09% up from 4.41%.
The NDA comfortably crossed the majority mark once again, but inside the campaign machinery, the focus remained not just on winning seats but on shifting the way people vote. RSS workers tried to convince voters to choose “performance” and “national interest” over traditional caste-based voting patterns, something that Bihar has long been known for.
Many volunteers already lived in Bihar as part of Sangh projects, while others, mainly ABVP students from universities across India, came whenever they could spare a few days. A senior RSS functionary said their door-to-door outreach reminded voters that narrowing their political choices based only on caste would “weaken larger social interests.”
RSS and BJP minority morcha in Seemanchal
One of the most striking results came from the Seemanchal region, a cluster of districts known for their significant Muslim population and changing demographics. Over the last decade, the RSS has slowly expanded its presence here through community work, social service, and volunteer programs. Because of this long groundwork, Sangh officials say they were able to consolidate Hindu votes cutting across caste lines in 28-32 seats in this region.
Out of 32 seats where Muslim voters form the majority, the NDA won 21 seats this time. The BJP won 10, JD(U) eight, LJP(RV) two and RLM one. This performance improved over 2020, when the NDA had won 18 of these seats.
The BJP’s Minority Morcha also ran a silent but targeted campaign from July onwards, focusing specifically on Muslim households. Its teams highlighted central welfare schemes, such as Ujjwala and Awas Yojana, and explained how these schemes benefit everyone, irrespective of religion.
Minority Morcha chief Jamal Siddiqui said that many Muslim families responded positively because they were looking for stability and development. He claimed that the trust in Nitish Kumar’s “tikau government” and Prime Minister Modi’s development push played a big role.
The Kishanganj Lok Sabha region offered one of the clearest examples. Here, in constituencies with large Muslim populations, the NDA not only kept its existing seats but also snatched several from the Mahagathbandhan. Seats such as Sheohar, Thakurganj, and Kadwa, won by the Opposition in 2020, moved to the JD(U) this year.
Mission Trishul: The RSS’s strategic campaign plan
Alongside its traditional election machinery, the RSS also ran a special campaign known as “Mission Trishul”, which began in February this year. This operation was curated and monitored at the top level, with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat himself involved, according to sources. While it was not a public campaign, it ran quietly underneath the political surface, shaping voter behaviour using surveys, social engagement, and targeted mobilisation.
What was Mission Trishul?
Mission Trishul followed a three-step structure aimed at strengthening the NDA’s prospects and countering anti-incumbency in key rural belts.
1. Identifying dissatisfied voters through grassroots surveys
The first part of the mission involved a detailed mapping of voter sentiment at the booth level. RSS volunteers reached out to people in villages and small towns to understand local anger points, such as unemployment, lack of roads, delayed welfare benefits, or frustration with local leaders. Volunteers created lists of households that were likely to shift away from the NDA unless engaged directly.
2. Linking local concerns with National themes
The second step focused on communication. Once areas of dissatisfaction were identified, the RSS worked to blend these local concerns with broader national themes used by the BJP, development, cultural identity, nationalism, and stability. Volunteers spoke about government schemes, job creation efforts, agricultural reforms, and caste-based reservation debates, and connected them to the larger narrative of “sushasan aur vikas”.
According to campaign insiders, the aim was to shift conversations away from hyper-local grievances and place them within the BJP’s national storyline.
3. Consolidation through Hindu identity politics
The final stage of Mission Trishul involved consolidating Hindu voters, cutting across caste differences, under a broader cultural nationalist umbrella. The idea was to bring together OBCs, Dalits, and upper-caste voters who might otherwise vote for different parties due to caste loyalties.
Organisations like the ABVP, Bajrang Dal, VHP, and Mazdoor Sangh cooperated in this effort. They helped identify booths where the BJP was strong and where it was weak, and worked to ensure that voters who supported the BJP were mobilised on polling day.
This kind of booth-level engineering has helped the Sangh in earlier elections too, including in Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra.
The Bihar Assembly election results reflect not just a political campaign but also a wide, layered mobilisation strategy that ran quietly in the background. The RSS’s extensive volunteer network, years of social work in regions like Seemanchal, targeted minority outreach by the BJP, and structured campaigns like Mission Trishul all worked together to strengthen the NDA’s position.