New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI) While the country’s biggest election season has begun, traders of Sadar Bazaar – a prominent wholesale market in north Delhi – say there is a muted demand for poll merchandise till now and hope that it will pick up in subsequent weeks.
Known for selling all kinds of election paraphernalia, from slogan-bearing t-shirts to flags, scarves and wristbands with images of party symbols and top leaders, the famous marketplace looks like a pale shadow of the past when it was swarmed with buyers during the biggest festival of democracy.
Sitting amid heaps of unsold poll knickknacks costing almost Rs 50 lakh, Mohammad Fazil of Zain Enterprises said the sales are the lowest he has witnessed in four decades of running the business.
“There is no demand whatsoever from any party this time. The Congress is facing a fund crunch it seems, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal is behind bars and the BJP, the only party from which there is some demand, is itself providing the publicity material to their candidates,” said a visibly distressed Fazil.
It is his seventh Lok Sabha election selling poll merchandise, but the 62-year-old says he plans to shift to a different business next year.
A stone’s throw from Fazil’s pint-sized store, sitting next to two life-size cardboard cutouts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a spacious air-conditioned showroom is Saurabh Gupta, owner of Anil Bhai Rakhiwala.
Gupta says the “slow pace” of sales this time could be due to the two-month-long election period.
The Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases, with the first phase of the elections scheduled for April 19 and the final phase on June 1.
“This time election tenure is long, that’s why demand is a little slow. Now, as the first phase is nearing, so I think the demand will pick up.
“That said, so far the demand has been really slow as compared to the last Lok Sabha elections or other elections,” said Gupta, whose family has been in the business of poll merchandise since the 1980s.
Flags and other campaign material of all major political parties jostle for space in most of these stores – resembling the electoral battle outside.
BJP shirts with its slogan ‘Ab Ki Baar 400 Par’ and caps are the most in-demand, Congress flags are the distant second and AAP’s merchandise, especially after Kejriwal’s, arrest is nowhere in the picture, says Gupta.
“The demand for items that have Modi ji’s face is more. Like, every merchandise for BJP should have Modi’s face. For Congress, some people demand Rahul Gandhi’s photo and some take only the party symbol,” he said.
The cost of badges and flags, traditionally the most selling items during the election season, ranges from Rs 1.50 to Rs 50 and even Rs 100, depending on the quality and size. Most of the publicity material is sourced from Mumbai along with Surat and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
While some blame the digitisation of the election campaign with the focus on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the low demand for election goods, others believe that a “fund crunch” and “delay” in campaigning by opposition parties was the reason behind low sales.
“The BJP started the campaign on time. But in Congress, the campaign, due to fund problems or some other reason, has started a little late… They took a lot of time.
“For instance, they recently came out with the tagline ‘Haath Badlega Halat’, but now there is no demand in the market for their merchandise,” Gupta said.
Harpreet Singh from GV Traders, an old player in the election merchandise sale, says he had anticipated the “poor show” beforehand and decided to give this Lok Sabha election a miss.
“Five years back, in 2019, it was a kind of festival for us, we could earn extra bucks. But this time I even talked to my fellow friends and shopkeepers, they all are very dejected, and it is not only in Delhi, but all over India.
“This time there is no demand at all for any publicity material, flags,” he said. PTI MG MAH RT RT
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