Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur is tied to plans for his retirement in September. Raut noted that Modi had not set foot in the RSS headquarters for the past 10-11 years but suggested that this trip was to bid a final goodbye to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Raut remarked to reporters, “He may have gone to the RSS headquarters to submit his retirement application for September.” He added that he suspects the RSS is pushing for a shift in the nation’s leadership.
Addressing the media in Mumbai, Raut elaborated, “I believe the entire Sangh Parivar wants a change in leadership. PM Modi’s time is up, and they want to select the next BJP chief.”
However, Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis swiftly rejected Raut’s assertions. He insisted that PM Modi’s leadership is far from over and that he will guide the country for years ahead.
Fadnavis countered, “In 2029, Modi will be Prime Minister again. There is no need to look for his successor. He is our leader and will remain so. In our culture, discussing succession while the leader is still active is inappropriate. That is a Mughal tradition, and the time for such talk has not come.”
Raut’s statements came just a day after Modi’s visit to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, an event that marked only the second official visit by a sitting Prime Minister to the organization’s central office. The first occurred in 2000, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited during his third term as PM.
During the visit, Modi paid his respects to RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, describing the organization as a “banyan tree” symbolizing India’s rich cultural and ideological heritage.
Modi also lauded the RSS’s enduring ideology, stating, “The ideological seed planted 100 years ago has grown into a vast tree. The RSS’s principles and values have raised it to great heights, with millions of kar sevaks as its branches.”
Earlier that day, the Prime Minister visited the Dr. Hedgewar Smruti Mandir in the Reshimbag area, where he honored the memorials of Hedgewar and the RSS’s second sarsanghchalak, Golwalkar.