New Delhi, Feb 4 (Agencies) : The Bharatiya Janata Party hopes to reach out to two crore people through an informal chitchat over cups of tea at roadside stalls. The ambitious chai pe charcha (conversation over tea) campaign, will be be inuagurated on February 12, 2014 by the party’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad and will take place simultaneously at a 1,000 locations across 300 cities.
“We are always looking to supplement our ways of reaching out to people and this idea will allow us to share, ask and suggest. The whole exercise is an amalgamation of five technologies — DTH, internet, satellite, mobile phones and social media,” said the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said in New Delhi on Tuesday.
To be held at an interval of five days the campaign will be addressed by Mr. Modi and senior leaders of the BJP. In some places the meetings will be addressed by either by Mr. Modi or by senior party leaders or both, she said.
The chai per charcha has been designed for a wider outreach and will each meeting will be based on a theme. The first such meeting on February 12 for instance will be on “good governance”.
“For the first 30 minutes the leader will put forth their views then there will be an hour and a half of question-answer session. People can share thoughts, ask questions or make suggestions during the interactions,” she said.
A special song and a video have been produced to popularise the event.