Rahul Gandhi had appeared in one of the videos of 'Village Cooking Channel' last year.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is participating in a Bharat Jodo Yatra, met the members of a 'Village Cooking Channel Channel', a popular YouTube channel, in Kanyakumari. The YouTube channel is known for its videos on traditional village food cooking in open fields. The creators of the channel had got pan-India appeal last year when Mr Gandhi joined an outdoor session cooking mushroom biryani during the election campaign. It is the first YouTube channel from Tamil Nadu to reach one crore (10 million) subscriber mark.
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In the video last year, Mr Gandhi joined the cooks making the biryani and mixed the raita mentioning the names of the ingredients out loud in Tamil, in the same way the chef does in the videos.
The channel, which was launched in 2018 by former caterer Periyathambi, has nearly 18 million subscribers now. His grandchildren Ayyanar, Murugesan, Tamilselvan, Muthumanickam and Subramanian are the other members who appear on the channel.
Rahul Gandhi with 'Village Cooking Channel' members on Friday.
The team of six initially started this channel just as a pass time. But soon, their content went viral, gathering more and more views on each video. The videos generally feature these people cooking traditional South Indian foods and other exotic recipes on agricultural fields, using traditional cooking methods.
Mr Gandhi launched the Bharat Jodo Yatra - the Congress party's mega march - from Kanyakumari on Wednesday evening. It is being seen as an attempt by the party to rally support ahead of the 2024 general election.
Ahead of the launch, Mr Gandhi visited his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's memorial at Sriperumbudur, where he was assassinated in a terrorist attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE).