The much-talked about Chai Pe Charcha is back in the national Capital. In a bid to woo Delhi’s middle class voters, the BJP has decided to give primary importance to the city’s Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in the run-up to the Assembly polls. Using its proven poll strategy of engaging the national Capital’s intelligentsia in discussions on local issues through its Modi Tea Party, the party intends to garner the support of a section of the society who seem to be ‘disillusioned’ by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and are still riding high on the ‘Modi wave’.
Even if he is India’s Prime Minister now, the Delhi BJP in the ensuing polls still plans to hold on to Narendra Modi’s tea seller roots. With the AAP quitting the Delhi Government in “just 49 days”, the saffron party believes it is the perfect time to reach out to and confirm their support base among the middle and upper middle class voters who are angered by the AAP’s decisions. Co-opting the RWAs will ensure the party a sizeable vote share as it accounts for almost 40 lakh voters in Delhi. It is pertinent to note here that in the 2013 Assembly polls, BJP had altogether got over 28 lakh votes in the Capital.
It is probably because of this reason that the Delhi BJP for the first time introduced an exclusive RWA cell under its umbrella. The party, in these pockets, will primarily focus on law and order issues and the safety of senior citizens in the Capital, said Pankaj Wadhawan, president of the RWA Cell.
Explaining its strategy to reach out to the middle class voters, he said, “There are around 4,300 registered RWAs in the city. Each RWA has around 100-200 households associated with it. Then there are RWAs in unauthorised colonies. So all together they form a major chunk of Delhi’s population who need to be reached out to. We are taking the membership drive to the RWAs and here our focus is on one-to-one communication rather than going the online way. This will help us to make the voters’ list as well.”
The party is planning to relaunch Chai Pe Charcha in a big way. “The middle class and the upper middle class are the ones who are actively involved in discussions about local issues. The RWAs in Delhi mostly constitute of retired government officials who are educated and quite respectable in the society. We will discuss issues with them, add them in our manifesto through the platform of Chai Pe Charcha,” said Wadhawan. Following the AAP’s footsteps, the saffron party is also planning to give the decisions on the expenditures of MlA local Area Fund (MlAlAD) in the hands of the RWAs. To engage the youth, musical concerts and competitions would be organised under the theme of Modi’s Swachchh Bharat campaign.