Narendra Modi and the Calculus of Tea PATNA, Bihar - Arun Pathak, a social worker, and his friends have been meeting at a tea stall near Patna University's College of Arts & Crafts for years. "We're all regulars here," Mr. Pathak said, taking a sip of strongly brewed masala chai. Last month, a new face showed up at the stall - the printed visage of Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party seeks to unseat the governing Congress Party in national elections next spring. In a bid to increase publicity before the massive rally held in Patna, the capital of the eastern state of Bihar, local B.J.P. officials asked tea vendors to brand their businesses "NaMo tea stalls" by putting up promotional posters using Mr. Modi's nickname. Mr. Pathak and his friends have continued to gather at the same shop despite its recent branding as a NaMo tea stall. "We are all Congress supporters, but we don't mind them putting up this poster," he said, pointing to the image of Mr. Modi. It's a democracy. Everyone has the right to speak his mind. We come here and pull out the newspaper and say whatever we feel. It doesn't matter if Modi's face is right there. This is the one place in politics where caste doesn't matter. People all vote on caste lines, but over a cup of tea we're all secular," Mr. Pathak said, pointing out the diversity of the customers gathered. This is where you find the real pulse of Patna. Mr. Modi's rally on Sunday, marred by a series of low-intensity bomb blasts, was seen as an important opportunity for Mr. Modi to woo voters in Bihar, a state with over 100 million people considered crucial to his party's chances of taking power from the long-dominant Congress Party, which faces growing unpopularity amid corruption scandals and weak economic growth. And the tea stall campaign is an effort to draw a contrast between Mr. Modi's humble beginnings as the son of a tea vendor in the western state of Gujarat, which he has governed as chief minister since 2001, and Rahul Gandhi, his Congress Party rival who is the son and grandson of previous Indian prime ministers. In his youth, Mr. Modi carried tea in a kettle from his father's shop to customers waiting for trains at the Vadnagar train station. "Here is a man born into a simple, poor family who worked hard to rise up," said Ravi Shankar Prasad, deputy opposition leader in the upper house of Parliament. Compare that to the Nehru-Gandhi Congress Party dynasty. They have been passing down power from one generation to the next, but after 60 years of this rule, the people have had enough. Modi's rise from a chai wallah to the prime minister's chair will show the great power of Indian democracy," Mr. Prasad said, using the Hindi term for tea seller. On Saturday, B.J. P. leaders took a break from rally preparations to make tea for reporters at a mobile stall, mimicking the elaborate movements for which India's chai wallahs are famous, pouring sugary milk tea from one cup to another. "This is our way of saying we are with the common people," said Mukesh Nandan, a local party worker administering the NaMo tea stall program. Over two hundred tea vendors had signed up to participate, according to Mr. Nandan, although local residents said they had not seen more than a handful of NaMo tea stalls. On Fraser Road, a main thoroughfare where thousands marched to the rally waving B.J.P. flags and singing songs dedicated to Mr. Modi, Gopi Tiwari, a tea vendor, said he was proud to show his support through his stand, a wooden cart which he had draped in the signature saffron-orange of the B.J.P. It is time for a change. Modi "Ji" was a chai wallah like me so he understands the poor," Mr. Tiwari said, using a Hindi title of respect. "Manmohan Singh just sits on his hands," he said in reference to the current prime minister. Modi Ji will solve our problems. He will attack Pakistan and bring development like he has in Gujarat. The customers around Mr. Tiwari's stand shouted in agreement as a pot of tea began to boil over. This is not the first time a politician has used tea to curry favor with voters in Bihar. When Lalu Prasad Yadav, a former chief minister of Bihar, became national railways minister in 2004, he mandated that in trains and on station platforms tea be served in kulhars, handmade clay cups, to provide employment for local potters and show his respect for tradition. The effort largely failed and today India's train tracks are littered with used plastic cups. "It makes sense that these leaders use tea as a promotional stunt," said Abhay Singh, a political analyst at The Times of India based in Patna. Tea stalls are where people gather to discuss politics, and of course candidates want people to talk about them when they are taking tea. Not all tea vendors have been eager to participate in the promotion of Mr. Modi. Manoj Rai, a tea vendor who was approached by the B.J.P. but declined to brand his stand a NaMo tea stall, said he did not want to offend potential customers. "I like Congress, B.J.P., J.D. (U), R.J.D., all of them," Mr. Rai said, listing the abbreviations of major political parties in Bihar. If my customers like them, I like them. While Mr. Modi is trying to use his humble origins to electoral advantage, he does remain the prisoner of his failure to stop the anti-Muslim riots in 2002 in which over 1,000 people were killed. Many of the riots occurred in neighborhoods where poor people lived, including many tea vendors. Memories of this tragedy still lingered with some of Patna's tea vendors, who said they would never consider branding their shops as NaMo tea stalls. "Muslims cannot trust this man," said Mohammad Phul, who runs a teashop in Phulwari Sharif, a predominantly Muslim neighborhood with narrow alleys dotted with mosques. "If Modi wins there will be riots in the streets," Mr. Phul said. He is researching roadside tea vendors around the country with Resham Gellatly. Read more of their work at chaiwallahsofindia.com