Bengaluru: ‘Congress kadlekai’ or ‘Congress peanut’, a famous spicy snack created by Sreenivasa Brahmins Bakery back in 1956, was recently the subject of rumours following the BJP-led NDA’s thumping victory in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
According to the rumours, the establishment, located on DVG Road in Gandhi Bazaar, Basavanagudi, changed the popular snack’s name to ‘Modi masala’ after the BJP’s victory in the elections. Customers and some TV channels also visited the bakery to ask if the rumours were true.
The snack is quite popular with the masses and gets mentioned on social media quite often. Many of those who now live in other cities often express their love for the snack and the desire to try it one more time.
The owner of the bakery, Vatsalaa Ramasprasad Iyengar rubbished the rumours regarding the name change and explained the history of the snack. She said that the snack was first made during the time of her father-in-law, Ramaswamy Iyengar in 1956. As those were the days of rationing and quotas, maida was in short supply and so Ramaswamy made snacks out of rationed peanuts.
Sreenivasa Brahmins Bakery claims to be one of the early pioneers in popularising Congress kadlekai. The name ‘Congress’ was given to the snack because, according to one urban legend, an open peanut resembles the famous Gandhi cap. According to another urban legend, the peanuts came to be called as such as a parody following the split of the Congress Party in 1969, because the peanuts have to be split to make the snack.
The taste of the snack was later enhanced by Vatsalaa’s husband, Ramaprasad Iyengar who took over the business from his father. After a lot of research, he added some new ingredients to enhance the taste.
Asked if the snack would ever be renamed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vatsalaa said that she wouldn’t as it is their original product.
Another version of the Congress kadlekai sold at this establishment is the Khara Bun Congress, a soft masala bun, sliced in half, covered in butter and stuffed with the Congress kadlekai.
There is also the Congress masala, in which the peanuts are mixed with onions, chillies, carrot, lemon and salt.
