Jhalmuri campaign: PM’s Rs 10 snack racks up 190 million social views
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to a jhalmuri shop in West Bengal amid four public meetings on Sunday sparked an internet frenzy with 100 million views within 24 hours on Instagram and almost 90 million views on Facebook.
Sources also said the Google search traffic for jhalmuri is the highest ever in 22 years.
Making an unscheduled stop during his campaign tour in West Bengal on Sunday, Modi savoured jhalmuri, a popular Bengali street food made of puffed rice, green chillies, and other spices, at Jhargram.
Modi enjoyed jhalmuri and shared a photo on his social media. In three X posts with a visit video, he said, “Amid four public meetings spanning West Bengal on a hectic Sunday, I savoured some delicious spicy puffed rice, Jhalmuri in Jhargram.”
In the clip, PM is seen asking the shopkeeper to make the snack. When he offered to pay, the vendor initially declined before accepting the money after insistence. It is also heard in the conversation that PM responded, saying that he likes onions but does not like to eat ‘dimag’ (brains) when the vendor sought to know from PM whether he likes onions in the jhalmuri. “Pyaz Khata Hoon, Bus Dimag Nahi Khata,” PM joked, paying Rs 10 to the reluctant shopkeeper.
The moment Modi posted a video on his official X account and later on other social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, it started trending with netizens coming out with vivid opinions. This is not the first time the PM’s fondness for any food item has grabbed the attention of social media. Earlier, before the Bihar assembly elections, his fondness for Litti-Chokha had gone viral.
PM was seen buying jhalmuri, a popular Bengali street food, extended to nearby States of Jharkhand, Odisha and the southern parts of Bihar. It is also available in Delhi NCR with a different nomenclature, ‘Murmure’.
The PM, accompanied by his security, paid the shopkeeper for the snack despite the shopkeeper’s initial reluctance.
But the Jhalmuri story was later spiced with political reactions, given the assembly elections around the corner in Bengal. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that Modi’s unscheduled stop to buy Bengal’s favourite snack jhalmuri during poll campaigning in Jhargram was just a “drama”. “How come cameras were present when he made the unscheduled stop? The entire episode was scripted,” she alleged.
