By N.B. Hombal

Bengaluru, Mar 19 (IANS): Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) highest decision-making body Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) commenced its two-day meeting here on Friday which will end with the election of the new Sarkaryavah (General Secretary) on Saturday.

While, this will be the seventh ABPS meeting in Karnataka, but for Bengaluru, the city will be the first one to elect a new Sarkaryavah outside the RSS-based headquarter in Nagpur.

RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and current Sarkaryavah Suresh aka Bhaiyyaji Joshi offered floral tributes to the portrait of 'Bharat Mata' heralding the commencement of the meeting. Bhaiyyaji's term expires on Friday.

The ABPS meets once in a year and also elects the Sarkaryavah who is the top executive head, with each term having three years, every third year. The ABPS' election meeting is being regularly held in Nagpur but this year due to the Covid pandemic, it has been shifted to Bengaluru. The 2019 ABPS was held in Gwalior, while the 2020 meeting was scheduled in Bengaluru but was cancelled in the wake of the pandemic.

The number of participants has been reduced to 450 from 1,500 as part of the Covid protocol. The remaining delegates will participate in the ABPS meeting from their respective states through videoconferencing.

"This year the ABPS was scheduled in Nagpur but due to the spike in Covid-19 cases, it was later shifted to Bengaluru," said Manmohan Vaidya, Sah Sarkaryavah of the RSS.

The RSS has 11 zones called kshetras which are further organised as 44 working units called prants (regions). Many delegates from these kshetras and prants will attend the ABPS online.

The two-day Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal meeting that concluded on March 18 in Bengaluru has decided the agenda of the ABPS and the resolutions to be presented and passed.

Vaidya said the ABPS meets every year to deliberate on the year gone by and plan for the next year.

"The ABPS will review its activities of 2020 and plan for the coming year's programmes besides electing the new Sarkaryavah for the next three years. The participants will also deliberate on expansion of Sangh work and the organisational activities," he added.

He said that RSS Shakhas and other Sangh events had completely stopped between March to June last year due to the pandemic and the Shakhas gradually resumed only in July.

"In comparison to March last year, most of the Shakhas have become active again. Around 89% of the Shakhas have recommenced and the remaining will resume gradually," Vaidya added.