KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: India’s 1.5 lakh small to medium cell phone retailers have a new champion — the Aam Aadmi Party’s Adarsh Shastri, grandson of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and a top executive with Apple and Samsung India before he entered politics.The retailers have been fighting hard to defend themselves against online sellers such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal, which are winning over customers by being able to sell phones and tablets at a discount, thus undercutting the brick-and-mortar trade. The AAP leader is seeking to mediate between traders and top brands such as Samsung, Apple and Nokia to curb such discounting. Spokespersons for the top online retailers and the top brands could not be immediately reached for comment.Shastri, 40, hit the headlines last December by quitting his job at Apple India where he was heading sales for the western region to join AAP ahead of the last general election. He’s had meetings with dealers in the north India and market leader Samsung after the shopkeepers threatened to stop selling devices made by the company, Apple and others. ​ Shastri is of the view that such threats are counterproductive for the traders and that a better solution can be found that’s beneficial to both parties. "Boycotting products of a particular brand is not the right approach," Shastri told ET. "We feel it’s not right because it doesn’t help the retailer, the brand and the consumer. Brands and retail need to work together," he said, adding that they are waking up to the issue since almost 95% of their sales are still dependent on the offline trade.It was at one such meeting mediated by Shastri last month that Samsung executives announced to the trade that it will go all out to limit or stop distribution to online sellers who are discounting products. More such meetings are lined up with other brands. To be sure, it’s not easy to see how any such resolution won’t end up with consumers having to pay more for devices.Besides this, some brands, such as Motorola and Xiaomi, have decided not to bother with traditional networks at all and are only selling their devices online. Shastri told ETthat he decided to help the cause of the small retailers who approached him, both in his individual capacity and as someone who has been involved with the industry.Besides this, he’s also secretary of the Indian Cellular Association, a grouping that represents manufacturers, distributors and trade partners of the cell phone industry. He also added that AAP won’t hesitate to step in and take a more active role since the retail business is the backbone of the Indian economy."Wherever the common retailer is being bullied by a large brand or by the large muscle of online retail, we (AAP) will step in. If it is required tomorrow to take up issues of small retailers, the party will absolutely do it," said Shastri. Before his Apple stint, Shastri was with Samsung where he was heading modern trade for the cell phone business.He was a part of the core team at Samsung that was responsible for the company’s rapid rise that saw it overtaking Nokia India to become the market leader, first in smartphones and then the overall mobile business. He also had a stint at Vodafone. These connections are now being put to good use."Nokia has been cooperating on this. Some brands are more disruptive than the others, like Samsung and even Apple, to an extent. But Nokia, Motorola and HTC have been reasonably open to the idea of price parity between online and retail channels," said Shastri.As per estimates by Hong Kong-based market researcher Counterpoint Research, around 10% of smartphone sales comes from online in India, which is estimated to grow up to 15% this Diwali with the top three e-commerce marketplaces — Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal, lining up major discount sales and promotions.