Brand 'Narendra Modi' & BJP Is Superhit in Kerala State

By Sukanya George | Kottayam

The lotus is yet to bloom in Kerala, but with the Lok Sabha polls ensuing, Brand NaMo is surely making inroads into the Malayali psyche. The t-shirt depicting BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi, launched by Government Chief Whip P C George at the ‘Run for Unity’ event in Kottayam thereby landing him in a political soup, has run out of stock. 

The overwhelming response to brand NaMo has now prompted the young entrepreneurs behind the initiative to come up with NaMo coffee mug, wrist watch and kurthas. Manu K M, along with his friend Renjith Raj from Kottayam, who started merchandising the NaMo t-shirt in the state and convinced George to launch their initiative is now thanking lady luck. ‘’We launched the tshirts in Kerala on December 15 and in just two weeks we had sold more than 2500 pieces. 
We have run out of stock and have an order booking for more than 5,000 NaMo t-shirts,’’ said Manu, who, with his friend, sold 200 t-shirts in half-an-hour after George launched their product during the ‘Run for Unity’ marathon organised by the Gujarat Chief Minister to drum up publicity for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel statue. George’s participation and his display of NaMo t-shirt had created a furore in the Congress camp with many demanding action against him. 

But the enterprising youngsters, unfazed by the controversy surrounding George, are cashing in on the overwhelming response to launch more NaMo products and also have posted pictures of George launching their tshirt on their website. 

“Seeing the response during the event, we started a website www.namoindiatshirt. com and the response we got from social networking sites like facebook was amazing. The tag line on the first t-shirt was ‘modi’fying India and we are also bringing out t-shirt with tag line ‘Yes, we can’ with a picture of Modi on it. 

We are not BJP workers but ardent fans of Modi for his vision of development,’’ says Manu. The customers for the NaMo tshirts were from across the state, including places like Kannur, Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. 

“There were also orders from non-resident-Keralites and next week we are launching the NaMo wrist watches with one year warranty and NaMo coffee mugs,” he said. BJP spokesperson V V Rajesh said this is not a oneoff incident as there is a good market for NaMo products in Kerala. “The t-shirt with Modi’s picture on it was not launched by the party. 

We actually supplied t-shirts with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s picture on it. But after George’s participation in the event became a controversy, seeing the visuals of the NaMo t-shirts, we got many a queries of the product from across the state,’’ he said. 

He said many Keralites are buying the NaMo products online and the BJP is not co-ordinating or supporting any of the business initiatives using Brand Modi. And recently, Modi’s supporters had also launched an online portal ‘NaMo Store’ at national level selling merchandise including t-shirts, sleeveless jackets, etc.