Bangalore: Congress has a nut-orious plan to counter Narendra Modi’s tea party

The Congress think tank in Delhi may be racking its brains on countering Modi’s ‘chai’ gambit, but a loyal worker of the party in faraway Tumkur may have found a way.

Party loyalist Tarunesh  is distributing ‘congress’ to counter ‘chai’. For the uninitiated, ‘congress’ is groundnuts fried with salt and chilly powder. The spiced groundnuts are a snack of masses, inexpensive and tasty, popular with school-going children and tipplers alike.

Distributing ‘congress’ at the Mahatma Gandhi stadium in Tumkur during the visit of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday, a bearded Tarunesh, said, “As a sincere Congress party worker, I have decided to encounter ‘Modi Chai” with my “congress’. If, chai is for all people, so is ‘congress’. Anyone can afford for it. I have heard that Gandhiji virtually lived on groundnuts.”

Preparing for the Sunday’s Congress convention for women at Tumkur, party workers were discussing the snacks to be distributed among volunteers, when Tarunesh thought of ‘congress’.

“I went to the market, bought 5 kilos of groundnuts, took the stuff home and prepared ‘congress’ for the convention. Since morning, I am sharing it with party workers and popularising it,” Tarunesh explained.

The idea has caught on. Now, Congress party workers are planning to popularise it during the Lok Sabha election in Tumkur.

“While campaigning, we will share ‘congress’ with every party worker; if possible, we will carry this during the door-to-door campaign also,” he said.

“It is a good idea. So far, it had not occurred to any party worker. I will start it in my place and try to inform my friends in the party,” said Sheshadri, who came all the way from Raichur to attend the rally.

Party nuts
In the city named after boiled beans, fried groundnuts have always been a favourite as ‘time-pass’, be it at a watering hole, or in bus stands and railway stations. Before the advent of ice cream cones and popcorn as the standard accompaniment while watching movies, it was ‘congress’ that was the film buff’s favourite. Theatre aisles used to be strewn with groundnut husks.

None knows who named groundnuts as ‘congress’, but by widespread agreement, the snack was titled after party, given the omnipresence both enjoy across the country. The naming came about during the eighties, that much many agree on. As ‘congress’ was de riguer snack in restaurants, bars and public places, some wag decided to name the alternative, dipped in maida and fried groundnuts, and to boot, saffron in colour, as ‘BJP’. With Deve Gowda and sons developing a third alternative, the obvious happened. Fried split groundnuts were named JD(S), by someone with a historical sense decided to identify the dicot with the sustained fracturing the Janata family has undergone.

Can ‘congress’ trump chai? A tough one that, but, surprisingly, both go together well. At least, that is what the AAP says.