Will #MufflerMan equal the success of #ChaiWala?

If one googles the word "Muffler", the first link is that of Wikipedia, which says that "muffler" is a device for reducing the amount of noise emitted by the exhaust of an internal combustion engine. However, most of us know the muffler as a scarf to protect ourselves from cold. Of course, a single word can have two meanings but interestingly, the Wikipedia meaning has a striking resemblance to Indian politics.

Analogically, our politics is like an internal combustion engine, the emitted noise can be annotated for corruption & crime and the device "Muffler" is of course, Arvind Kejriwal's world famous muffler. During AAP's terrific election debut, and its subsequent resignation, not even once, was Kejriwal seen sans his trademark muffler.

Lost somewhere in the aftermath of the Lok Sabha elections, Kejriwal's muffler has made a remarkable return. In the past few days, Twitter hashtag #Mufflerman, a term which was primarily meant to disgrace Kejriwal, has been used by AAP supporters extensively to win the support of Delhi voters. Funny memes, hilarious posters and amusing jokes are being shared by thousands of his fans on Twitter and Facebook. AAP supporters claim that #MufflerMan has been used 250,000 times till now.

Earlier this year Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's controversial remark "I promise you in 21st century Narendra Modi will never become the Prime Minister of the country. But if he wants to distribute tea here, we will find a place for him", directed at Modi, gave a different impetus to BJP's already electrifying campaign that time.

Instead of taking a reactive jibe at Aiyar, Modi foresaw a golden opportunity to glamorise and politicise his tea-seller background, and launched the "Chai Pe Charcha" campaign. Organised across multiple cities and towns, the campaign was a huge success and found acceptance among millions.

Eleven months later, AAP's supporters appear to be attempting the replication of a similar phenomenon. Indeed, there were some tweets from BJP supporters which accused AAP of copying from Chai Pe Charcha's success, however, going back to last year's Delhi election campaign, BJP released a tailored manifesto for every constituency, exactly similar to what AAP had done a few weeks prior to it. More recently, Modi cleverly wrested the "Jhaadu" from AAP to advertise his pet program "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan". "Jhaadu", earlier associated with Kejriwal and his party's crusade to root out corruption, was being embossed amongst peoples' minds as a means to make the country clean.

Hence, BJP supporters' accusation, of AAP having imitated Modi's campaign strategy, even if true, cannot be considered in isolation. Fortunately, political campaigning ideas can't be copyrighted, but by playing the blame game, they would only be ridiculing themselves.

Although AAP claims the whole #MufflerMan campaign is completely volunteer driven, prominent AAP members, Gul Panag and Mayank Gandhi, in their tweets, have referred to Kejriwal as "MufflerMan".

It doesn't matter whether it is formally backed by AAP's senior members or not, the bigger question AAP supporters need to focus on is, will the attempted replication of Modi's successful campaign fetch the desirable outcomes in the Delhi elections? AAP's political survival depends heavily on the Delhi elections and #MufflerMan might be their last-ditch effort to regain glory. Can #MufflerMan do for AAP in Delhi elections what #ChaiWala did for Modi in Lok Sabha elections?