In order to popularise brand Aam Aadmi Party and its leader Arvind Kejriwal, a private firm is planning to come up with AAP jhadu (broom) and mineral water, along with other merchandise.
Kraanti, a Gurgaon based firm set up AAP supporters, are selling T-shirts with party and its leader Arvind Kejriwal's name, alongwith other items such as coffee mugs, wristbands, badges and key chains.
"The concept has been inspired by Obama merchandise used by US President Barack Obama supporters in his election campaign. We decided to adopt the same model.
"We will soon come up with AAP jhadu with a party logo and on and also mineral water and notebooks with AAP and Kejriwal's photo on it. These products won't be expensive like T-shirts and can also be symbolic," said Vibha Singh, an IITian and MICAn who quit her job in a news channel as marketing and strategy development officer to join the AAP movement.
The company has come up with ideas that connect with its supporters since it has tweaked some of the existing concepts.
For example, it has a superman logo with AAP written on the T-shirts, tags like "Corruption Free India" and Arvind Kejriwal's picture on the T-shirts. The T-shirts cost around Rs 250 per piece while the coffee start at a price of around Rs 150.
"The idea was conceptualised after the Delhi assembly elections after which we quit our jobs and formed the company a month back," Singh added.
The company products have received a good response from people. "We were also there in Rohtak and Kanpur rally where we received a good response. Such products also help increase party support and a feeling of loyalty towards the party," said Shipa Khare Arora, who also quit her job in a broking firm to join the movement.
The merchandise has found liking among the colleges, especially in IITs and IIMs and abroad as well.
"We have got requests and queries from cities like Raipur and Indore. We have also received queries from Georgia and Boston in US," Singh added.
Both Singh and Arora said that their start-up firm would donate a certain percentage of their profits to the party.
Incidentally, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi also has a similar merchandise products started by his supporters.
Image: A supporter of the Aam Aadmi Party holds a broom, the party's symbol, during a rally
Photographs: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
