New Delhi: The prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Narendra Modi, has devised a plan to turn the tables on Indian National Congress (INC) leader Mani Shankar Aiyar for the latter’s jibe on his childhood profession of tea-selling. He will reaching out to voters by organising political discussions in makeshift and permanent tea stalls across the country.
“I promise you in 21st Century Narendra Modi will never become the Prime Minister of the country… But if he wants to distribute tea here, we will find a place for him”
—Aiyar at the venue of the AICC meeting in New Delhi on 18 January
Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal had made similar remarks against Modi, saying that a person who used to sell tea could not have a national perspective.
Modi will begin this campaign at a tea stall in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat on 1 February. It’s the Lok Sabha constituency of BJP patriarch LK Advani. Named ‘Chai pe Charcha’, the programme will incorporate video-conferencing between 1,000 tea stalls in 300 cities. It is expected that all major television channels will broadcast the campaign live.
Prashant Kishor of Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), a non-ideological campaigner who charges a hefty sum to design campaign strategies for different political parties, has devised Chai pe Charcha. This ‘discussion over cups of tea’ will be held every week up to the time of general elections. Modi will thus interact with about 2,00,000 people directly once every seven days.
A source in CAG said to सिर्फ़ News that Chai pe Charcha will use Internet, television broadcast technology, mobile and social media platforms to connect all the venues across the country. The multi-way video conference will go on simultaneously.
“Modi will be able to connect with at least two lakh people during each round of the event. In all, from now until elections Modi will be able to interact with over 30 lakh people directly through this event. In addition, several millions (sic) will be reached using online webcast of the interactions,” the CAG source said.
The organisers will invite people to attend Chai pe Charcha through online and offline campaigns. More than 40,000 people from different States have already expressed their desire to attend the event. Most of them are from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharastra.
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