Ahmedabad: Seeking to counter a Congress’ meme mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘chaiwala’ past, BJP leaders, including Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley, today tuned in to his radio programme ‘Mann ki Baat’ while having tea with people across poll-bound Gujarat.

The BJP organised ‘Mann ki Baat, Chai ke Saath’, at all the 50,128 polling booths in 182 Assembly seats.

BJP president Shah listened to the programme at a tea stall in the city’s Muslim-dominated Dariyapur area in the presence of hundreds of locals and party workers.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was present at a booth in Adajan area of Surat-West Assembly constituency, said a party release.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani listened to Modi’s monthly programme while having tea at Mora village in Panchmahal district, while Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel was present at a booth in his constituency in Mehsana.

The other party leaders who joined the programme at various places included Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Uma Bharti, Smriti Irani, Jual Oram and Parshottam Rupala, Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani and several state ministers, MLAs and some MPs.