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Bhartiya Janata Party's (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi seems to have turned Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's 'chaiwala' jibe into an opportunity. On Wednesday, Modi launched a mega national campaign called 'chai pe charcha' (discussions over tea) from Ahmedabad that covered 1,000 tea stalls across 300 cities nationally.
As part of the innovative campaign, which is done through video conference, Modi likened a tea stall with that of a "footpath Parliament" and looked to connect and interact with voters. As many as 1,500 people gathered at a tea stall on SG Highway in Ahmedabad, where Modi answered direct questions from various parts of the country such as such as Vadodara (Gujarat), Patna (Bihar), Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), and Lucknow and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), to name a few. Although the inaugural event of the campaign had "good governance" as the subject of discussion, Modi offered his views on various subjects including law and order, infrastructure, balanced development of western and eastern parts of the country, national security issues and skill development, among others. He plans to connect with 20 million people through this mass connect progamme over a period of time.
Before taking questions from the people directly, Modi recounted his childhood experiences - both bad and good - including that of selling tea. "In a way, a tea stall is like a footpath Parliament where world issues are discussed while sipping tea. Discussions vary from that of rural issues, family issues to issues about Israel and Mars. I have learnt a lot while selling tea in my childhood. I got an opportunity to meet lot of people. I used to carefully listen to people's discussions while selling tea. It has been a special experience of my childhood," Modi recounted while sipping tea with the common man at one of the tea stalls in Ahmedabad.
The tea served at these NaMo stalls was free for the people, with the party bearing the expenses.
