For 2019 Polls, AAP repurposes PM modi’s “Chai Pe Charcha’

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ The Aam Aadmi Party gearing up to make its mark in the Lok Sabha elections next year has taken the “chai pe charcha” route to reach out to voters in the national capital.

‘Chai pe charcha’ gained prominence in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls with Narendra Modi as Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate adopting it to communicate with voters across the country. AAP failed to win any seat in Delhi although it won four Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in the 2014 polls.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, however, said it did not borrow the concept from the saffron party. Dilip Pandey, AAP’s in-charge of North East Delhi constituency said, “We have been holding ‘chai pe charcha’ since the winters of 2012 to reach out to the ‘aam aadmi’ (common man)”.

The party has already announced the in-charges of five of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. Mr Pandey said the party has organised 300 ‘chai pe charcha’ meetings in his constituency so far. Another party leader said such meetings have been planned in the remaining parliamentary seats as well.

Contrary to PM Modi’s ‘chai pe charcha’ meeting in Ahmedabad in February 2014 which was beamed across the country through video conferencing and television channels, AAP’s meetings are “more close” and “direct affairs” where local issues and political discussions take centre stage, party sources said.