‘Vikas’ model tackles ‘chor’ jibe

In the business world, "ambush marketing" refers to a company’s tactic to use a word or a phrase from a rival’s advertisement punchline as ammo in a counterattack. The Gujarat BJP has used ambush marketing twice in less than two years to fight the Congress’s attacks.


The "Vikas Gaando Thayo Chhe" (Vikas Has Gone Crazy) campaign ahead of the 2017 assembly election in Gujarat made the BJP jittery as the campaign was a runaway success. A range of issues — including bad roads, freely available liquor, soaring fuel prices, unemployment, and farmer distress — were highlighted through memes.

The BJP eventually countered the onslaught with the campaign "Hu Chhu Vikas" (I am Vikas). While campaigning for the 2017 assembly election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself promoted the "Hu Chhu Vikas" slogan. A series of videos were circulated by the BJP to popularize the slogan. The assembly election result suggests that the Gujarat BJP had managed to weather the "Vikas Gaando Thayo Chhe" salvo.

Now, just before the general election, Congress president Rahul Gandhi sounded the battle cry from Gujarat, repeating the slogan "Chowkidar Chor Hai" (Watchman is Thief). With the campaign directly attacking Modi, whose home state is Gujarat, the Gujarat BJP has sought to wrest the "Chowkidar" advantage from the Congress. The Gujarat BJP has launched "Main Bhi Chowkidar" campaign. All top BJP leaders of Gujarat, chief minister Vijay Rupani and almost all his ministers, and thousands of BJP-supported Twitter handles in the state have added "Chowkidar" as prefix to their names.

Rupani tweeted: "Happy that #MainBhiChowkidar has ignited the Chowkidar within all of us. Great fervor..."

Amit Thaker, the convener of the BJP IT cell said: "PM Modi is our star campaigner. The Congress’s ‘Chowkidar’ campaign is a direct attack on him. We had to reply in a befitting manner."

Hiren Banker of the Congress IT cell said that though the BJP had tried hard, it was not able to produce anything to match the popularity of the "Vikas Gaando Thayo Chhe" Banker said.