Vote for Vada Pav

Vada pav reigns as the ultimate-choice snack in Mumbai's election season, even as vote-seekers 'treat' volunteers and voters to potato-filled savouries in the April heat

The Vada Pav People is a stand-up comedy group launched with a simple logic: Most people savour the vada pav, they will love the VP People too. In fact, the VPP served their audience with free hot vada pavs in the promotional shows, saying their identity goes hand-in-hand with the iconic chutney-induced Mumbai burger. As the group locks its dates and performance venues for the subsequent months coinciding with the nation's general elections, vada pav is not just synonymous with their self-image, but it is the Mumbai vote-seeker's safest bet to ensure a food-connect with voters/volunteers. While the city goes to poll on April 29th (after the three phases in other parts of the state), the vada pav steadily rises in its stature as the Mumbai politician's hassle-free innocuous treat which he or she can offer without much fuss.

"We are not politically-inclined, neither did we float this name because of the election-season clientele of vada-samosa-bhajia pavs. But we can gauge why hot vadas come in handy as a tool of engagement," jests Yashodhan Tak, one of the founders of VPP who hails from Nagpur and was culturally exposed only to the Tarri Pohe (seasoned puffed rice topped with spicy red curry and sev) breakfast option, often put to innovative use by Vidarbha politicians. But, in the city of distances and traffic, nothing can match the joy and convenience of stir-fried green chilies positioned inside the vada pav, served to the star campaigner's team taking an end-of-the-day count of visited households. As BJP legislator Praveen Darekar styles it the "ideal transit food" because "this is the time everyone is on the move, and the easy-to-carry spicy street vada matches the mood."

Nevertheless, the vada pav's popularity ratings have been factored into the State Election Commission's fresh and detailed list of eatables (that will be observed by poll officers and caught on camera) which are served to the electorate by the contesting candidate. In fact, this is the first time when the commission has included granular details like per unit cost of special tea, vada pav, pattice, pohe, missal, egg-mutton thali and bottled beverage. That leaves no ambiguity about the rates against which a candidate's poll expenditure will be measured and also controlled-penalised, if found in violation of the code of conduct during polls. While a non-special thali is nailed down at R100, tea is R8, upma rated at R30 and vada pav stands at R15, which has caused much spicy debate! Vada pav aficionados across party lines feel the recipe does not deserve to be in the ambit of inquiry; it is a working lunch that is low-cost by definition.

As Bharatiya Janata Party's Mumbai unit president Ashish Shelar says, bribes and use of black money does not necessarily manifest in vada pav expenditure. "Vada pavs and similar non-branded eatables (few branded vadas also exist) do not hold high stakes. It is a common man's staple, which cannot be pinned at R15." He feels the roadside vendors treat Mumbai to the inexpensive (R5 to R8) tasty vadas, which is a fact not registered in the code of conduct.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Nitin Sardesai has a different vada theory. He feels vadas are low-cost home enterprises during the polls. "Some of our volunteers bring vadas from home for which they charge us minimally, which is a fact that is not captured in the code of conduct." Sardesai gave a place of pride to the vada pav in the recent MNS-sponsored missal festival in Matunga. He equates it with Marathi pride and identity. Like the MNS, the Shiv Sena also sees the vada and the missal as symbols of traditional culinary roots. The party's Shiv Vada Pav scheme in fact provided stall space to Marathi youth so that they could popularise vadas. Surprisingly, none of these stalls (under the specific banner) are currently active, some were caught selling Chinese bhel! The sting operation against these stalls was done by the Nitesh Rane-led Swabhiman Sanghatana, a rival political bloc which launched the Chhatrapati Vada-Pav, which again became controversial after it was labelled as an insult to warrior king Shivaji by another Maratha body. That is vada politics on and off polls.

In 1985, Yuva Shakti Pratishthan NGO waged a fierce battle against the vada pav by floating zunka-bhakri as a healthier, non-fattening alternative. Pratishthan founder Sanjeev Khandekar opened 15 Jevan Ghars in Mumbai which provided the bhakri made and served by wives of textile mill workers. Today, the one at KEM Hospital, is the only center that is operational. "The vada pav has raced ahead and we must acknowledge that our movement could not sustain the energy required to sell the bhakri," says Khandekar who is currently working on a mixed media exhibition documenting Mumbai's short-term tryst with an organic 'bhakri' diet.

Amusingly, Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik, also a restaurateur who at one point vended street food in Thane, has other reservations about the vada pav in the ongoing summer season. He feels a samosa braves Mumbai heat better than a vada. His office is known to institute a bhandara (free food arrangement) where samosas are ampler than the vadas. "This election, I vote for the samosa against the vada," he quips.

Vada pav has been a constant in another politician's life, Republican Party of India leader and Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale, who was raised in the Siddharth Hostel (Wadala) until he became a minister. After attending the Dalit Panther late night meetings (which ended post 1 am) he would have either burji or vada pav near Dadar station. Being true to the vada pav diet that sustained him, his party recently demanded all restaurants to have Marathi cuisine like vada on their menu, irrespective of the main staple promised on the menu card, such as Chinese, Mexican or Lebanese. Some restaurants have obliged, Athawale informs, adding an instant ode to the trademark vada: "Mumbai Aahe Maza Gaav, Mhanoonach Mala Avadto Vada Pav!"

As electioneering heats up, and the vada demand grows, food blogger Swarali Kulkarni, 25, has undertaken the Vada Pav documentation project, in which she has acknowledged relatively lesser-known 20 epic vada joints spread across Mumbai which are currently providing mouthwatering dumplings. Her survey declares that such joints entertain a mixed crowd, where national politics is discussed with spice. "Vada pav is an emotion, running high in the city, on which chroniclers like me depend for fodder and colour. I just hope the elected candidates live up to the vada pav sumptuousness."

Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre is a culture columnist in search of the sub-text. You can reach her on sumedha.raikar@gmail.com

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