Idea behind the conceptualization of Mufflerman aka Arvind Kejriwal was completely accidental. AAP formed a minority government on Dec 28, 2013. After 49 days, Arvind Kejriwal resigned from the post of Chief Minster of Delhi due to blockage of Jan Lokpal Bill introduced by AAP. 49 days of governance saw some progress by AAP as many were arrested by Delhi Anti Corruption Branch, old scams were opened and a case was filed against Reliance chief. Post-resignation Arvind was mocked due to his unstoppable coughing, his dressing style and was called a Bhagoda. Saddened by these labels, Dr. Nehal Vaidya, an AAP volunteer from Bhuj, thought of rescuing Arvind from the trolls. One day, around midnight, Dr. Nehal got an idea and created a poster of Arvind Kejriwal with the tagline “Man with muffler, the fear factor”. Nehal wanted some inputs and forwarded the poster to Raj living in UK who then forwarded it to Mohammad Shadab for graphic design. Mohammad Shadab designed a new poster and twisted the words “Man with muffler” to “Mufflerman”.

The poster was uploaded on social media websites. It was one of the favourite posters of Aarti Chadha, another AAP volunteer. She casually tweeted the poster with the hashtag #mufflerman. It quickly gained people’s attention and they started tweeting about it. This was the first and only incident in Indian social media history when a hashtag trended at the top for 12 continuous days. The hashtag helped Arvind Kejriwal in creating a positive image of himself and Aam Aadmi Party.

Since then, #mufflerman is in regular use on social media. Donors tweet their donation certificates with #mufflerman.

Taking the idea of Mufflerman and the work carried out by Arvind Kejriwal, AAP NRI volunteer Srijon Das, Swagnick Das and Arvinda Tegginamath created a cartoon book named “Mufflerman vs Monkeyman”. The book consists of inspiring bed time stories for kids. Apart from being a storybook, it is also a colouring book where kids can colour the cartoon characters available in black and white. First part of the book is focused on becoming the Mufflerman. The book is available at greypodium.com and you can read or download it by clicking it here. If you live in the US and want the printed book to be delivered to your address, you can also order it here.