On the lines of Modi’s ‘Chai pe Charcha’.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
As the election heat is mounting up in Kerala, the BJP in the state has come up with an innovative concept to boost up their election propaganda.
The initiative called ‘sambhara samvadam’ (dialogue over a cup of buttermilk) has begun in Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district of the state, on Monday.
Nalin Kumar Kateel, BJP MP from Mangalore, inaugurated the discussion which will be conducted in all 140 state assembly constituencies.
The concept is simple: voters can ask questions to the party leaders at the function about various issues they are facing when the program is conducted in their constituency. Voters will be given spicy sambharam (buttermilk) during the discussion.
The slogan of the program is “Venal choodinu sambharam (sambharam for the summer heat), sadbharanathinu samvadam (a debate for good governance),” aptly coined as buttermilk has been used by Keralites for centuries to resist the summer heat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Chai pe Charcha’ (dialogue over a cup of tea) during the parliament election was a great success. The same idea is used to widen the voting base of the party in Kerala also.
The concept was coined by a group of Bengaluru-based techies who support the party and actively participate in the propagation activities.
The BJP is aiming to discuss various issues such as environmental protection, good governance, women protection and corruption to educate people on these issues. Political violence, the CPI (M) -Congress alliance in West Bengal etc. will also be discussed.
“We are scheduling more events and waiting for confirmation from the guests,” Sanju S, a software engineer and one of the volunteers behind the project, told Telegraph India.
“Pamphlets will be issued to the various centers where the event will be held, explaining how the sambharam is to be prepared,” he added.
After assessing the success of the discussion in Aranmula, the future course of action will be decided. BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan was the leader of an agitation against a proposed airport at Aranmula a few years back. He managed to bring Hindu, Christian and Muslim leaders under one umbrella to fight against the airport which ended successfully.
The vote base of the BJP has doubled in Aranmula since the agitation. Though Rajasekharan was the leader of the agitation and he is well known to the people of Aranmula, the party’s state general secretary MT Ramesh is contesting in the constituency.
Prominent leaders like Nupur Sharma, Nirmala Sitharaman, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, JP Nadda, and Pratap Simha are expected to attend ‘sambhara samvadam’ in different places.
BJP hasn’t won any seat in the Kerala assembly election so far. However, political analysts and pre-poll surveys have predicted a few seats for the BJP in the upcoming elections.