Has his family warming up to electorate over tea even as discontent simmers
In their bid to reach out to the voters, the family members of Jai Prakash Agarwal, Congress candidate from North-East Delhi Parliamentary constituency, have embarked on a people-to-people contact programme. Not only Agarwal but his wife Sarita, his two sons Mudit and Amit and their wives — Vidhi and Ekta are leaving no stone unturned and they visit homes warm up to voters over cups of chai. Every day members of the Agarwal clan fan out to reach supporters and communities in the congested lanes of North-East Delhi parliamentary constituency which has a vast and diverse mix of voters.
Agarwal’s elder son Mudit Agarwal looks after his election campaigning and day-to-day programme in the constituency. Besides, he also campaigns door-to-door in the constituency and visits party workers’ home, warming up to voters over cups of tea. Mudit told The Pioneer that actually chai pe charcha concept initially started by the Congress party in 2006-07 which helped deserted party workers to bring back to the party. “On Tuesday evening, along with party workers I went to Sunder Nagari for people-to-people contact,” he said. Agarwal’s younger son Amit looks into voters list, distribution of voters slip, publicity and polling day management schedules. The entire family members of Agarwal are campaigning eight to nine hours a day. Agarwal’s wife Sarita along with women supporters is campaigning door-to-door people contact almost 8-9 hours in a day and urging people don’t waste their vote and vote for the Congress party. His two daughters-in-law Vidhi and Ekta can be seen rushing through crowded lanes to primarily speak to women.
Agarwal since morning addresses people through corner meetings, cautioning voters not to give vote to AAP this time. He started padyatra from 10 am in the Gokulpur area and it was continued till 2 pm. After that he continued to campaign in the Burari area between 5 pm to 10 pm and held 10 corner meetings. In the evening, Agarwal started his padyatra from Jagatpur village and held a corner meeting at Jharoda Harijan Basti, a cluster of 500 plus houses. He left only after cautioning people against falling prey to AAP’s “falsehood” and described the battle for 2014 a choice between a secular Congress. Requesting people to support him, he highlighted his works accomplished by him in the last five years as a constituency MP.