RSS to hold national representative body meeting in Nagpur every three years

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will move away from holding its Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS), its highest decision-making body, every year, with the change set to take effect from March 2027.

Under the revised arrangement, the three-day ABPS meeting will be held in each of the organisation’s nine regions, or Kshetras, over two consecutive years. A national gathering will then take place in Nagpur every third year, according to people familiar with the development.

The Nagpur meeting is particularly significant because elections to choose the RSS’s new office-bearers are conducted every three years. The next such meeting is scheduled to take place in March 2027.

Regional meetings to focus on local priorities

An RSS functionary said the change was part of broader organisational reforms and would allow the Sangh to focus more closely on its activities and expansion in different parts of the country.

“Since we are expanding our footprint, it is important to focus on each region, the local issues and the work that the Sangh needs to undertake in that area,” the functionary said, explaining that the ABPS would continue to set the broad direction for the organisation while enabling more focused, region-specific action.

The regional meetings are expected to take place over a period of two to three months. Senior RSS functionaries, including Sarsanghchalak, the organisation’s chief, and its general secretary, will attend these gatherings. Their participation will depend on the schedule, with either one or both potentially present, the functionary said.

The RSS’s national executive committee meeting, scheduled for November in Indore, will continue to be held annually.

At the three-day ABPS gathering, senior Sangh leaders review the work undertaken by the organisation’s affiliates and associated bodies. The meeting also discusses and adopts resolutions on important issues and sets objectives for future programmes and campaigns.

Organisational restructuring to expand grassroots presence

The revised meeting schedule comes amid wider changes to the RSS’s organisational structure. Last year, the organisation, regarded as the ideological fountainhead of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), announced plans to replace prant pracharaks with sambhag pracharaks, or division-level full-time workers, to strengthen its reach and presence on the ground.

The restructuring will increase the number of pracharaks from 46 to 85, while reducing the number of kendras, or state-level units, from 11 to nine.

The changes are also expected to shape the process of electing office-bearers across the organisation. Following the November meeting, state units will elect new karyakarinis, or state-level executive bodies, as well as sambhag sanghachalaks, who head divisions, and kshetra sanghachalaks, who lead regions.

The kshetra sanghachalaks will, in turn, elect the RSS’s new general secretary.

The last election to the post took place in 2024, when incumbent Dattatreya Hosabale was elected for a second term.