Chennai: Aiming to create ripples in the Assembly election and also connect with young voters, BJP senior and party’s candidate for Assembly election Vanathi Srinivasan launched “Coffee with Vanathi,” taking a leaf out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Chai pe charcha.
This Coimbatore South candidate with her roots in Uliyampalayam near the renowned Marudamalai temple, has decided to contest from her home district after making her electoral debut in Mylapore, here, in 2006 Assembly election. She had finished third securing about 6,000 votes then. As state vice president she is quite active on the social media.
Asked why she chose Coimbatore South, Ms. Vanathi replied, “it is my home. I was born and grew up there.” On April 13 she interacted with a group of youngsters during the “Coffee with Vanathi” chat event. During the interaction she was asked to give one word substitute for BJP. “Nationalism” – pat came the reply.
Her spontaneous reply: “unmatchable leader,” when asked what comes to her mind at the mention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name, evoked spontaneous applause from the youth. Her novel initiative is likely to spur her victory prospects at the hustings and she apparently is the first leader in the south India to state this novel discussion.
“Coffee With Vanathi is an initiative to create a platform to have a direct one-to-one interaction with the various sections of people,” Ms Vanathi Srinivasan explains.
The chat sessions were really interesting as the motley crowd of participants posed questions ranging from politics, elections to knowing about the difference between a leader and a politician.
This popular television debating personality who is also a practicing lawyer has even started a blog exclusively to share her experiences on the discussions she has had with the youngsters.
