Bengaluru: Taking a leaf from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet programme, 'Chai Pe Charcha', the Janata Dal (Secular) is embarking on 'Ragi Mudde Pe Charcha' and 'Jolad Rotti Pe Charcha' to woo rural voters.
The 'Chai Pe Charcha' launched by Modi just before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, was a big hit across the country with the party cadre holding the programme in their villages, towns and cities and inviting people belonging to different sections of society for a discussion over a cup of tea. Seeing its success, JD(S) deputy leader in the Legislative Assembly Y.S.V. Datta wants to have a similar programme here in the run-up to the Assembly elections next year. Datta has been the brain behind the election manifesto of the party for several years. He was known for coming out with novel ideas to propel JD(S) prospects and come up with innovative ideas.
He told DC that the idea behind naming 'Ragi Mudde Pe Charcha' was to woo people of south Karnataka as ragi is the staple food in this part of the state. Almost every family in old Mysuru prepare Ragi Mudde daily since it is considered a healthy food. Besides, Ragi Mudde is the favorite dish of JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda who relishes it with 'Soppina Saaru' (sambar made from spinach).
As far as 'Jolad Rotti Pe Charcha', jola (jowar) is consumed by people of Mumbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka regions. Those people have jolad rotti for lunch and dinner. Taking these factors into consideration, it was decided to keep two different names for two regions.
According to Datta, local party functionaries and leaders would sit with local people, relish Ragi Mudde or Jolad Rotti and discuss current political developments and more so the relevance of regional parties like JD(S). They would be told how important it was to have a regional party in power since two national parties-Congress and BJP were controlled by their respective high commands. On many occasions, the decision of the high command had caused injustice to the state. But it was not so in the case of JD(S) where decisions are taken in Bengaluru either by Deve Gowda or his son and state JD(S) president H.D. Kumaraswamy. The party had already launched 'Karnatakakke Kumaranna' (Kumaranna for Karnataka' which is pioneered by the youth wing to attract young voters.
The party is planning to launch this programme sometime next month and plans to cover all 224 Assembly constituencies in the next one year. There would no problems in getting ragi mudde or jolad rotti as local workers would have it prepared in large quantities and distribute it among participants during the discussion.
