GST, religious identities at interplay this poll season in Burrabazar

While the campaign for the fourth phase of polls in West Bengal is in full swing, Paras Gambhir, a whole seller of political merchandise at Burrabazar, one of the biggest trading hubs of the east, is disappointed with his muted business. The inventory of unsold stocks of flags, caps, t-shirts, saris, and umbrellas, bearing the colors and symbols of different political parties, is particularly high this year.  Compared to 2014 Lok Sabha elections, this year the sale of political flags alone is down by 40 per cent, while the prices are up by around 10 per cent, he says.

“For parties like Congress and CP(I)M, buyers only show up once or twice week. The majority of sales are driven by TMC and BJP, but both the parties have been hard bargainers,” says Gambhir.

While in general, during election season, the overall sale of goods in Burrabazar remain lackluster, this year the slowdown has been compounded by rising cost of transportation and the impact of GST, says Ashok Kapoor, one of the cloth merchants in the area.  For example, in the yarn market, the oldest and biggest submarket of Burrabazar, the sale has down by 15 to 20 per cent over the last two years, he says. The yarn, raw and spun, including the ones used for flags, comes from Gujarat.

There are more than 25 specialized markets in Burrabazar, with a collective turnover running into several thousand crores according to informal estimates.

Ever since the British era, the market has remained unorganized, with majority of trade taking place out of the purview of tax net. Small traders from far off villages and towns in the east come here to buy goods in bulk. Hence, the transition to GST has been particularly painful for the large trading community of Burrabazar.

Yet, the slowdown is not the sole deciding factor of the poll outcome in the area, which falls under the North Kolkata constituency. Not only in Burrabazar, but in the entire constituency, a  motley set of voters, their caste and religious identities, are set to make the fight between incumbent TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay and BJP’s Rahul Sinha, the former state president of the party, an interesting one.

Poll merchandise being sold at Kolkata's Burrabazar | Photo: Namrata Acharya

Close to 70 per cent of voters in North Kolkata and also in Burrabazar are Hindi-speaking migrants from the states of Bihar, UP, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, according to Rajesh Sinha, convener of the Hindi cell of TMC.  About 30-40 per cent of the voters are Hindi-speaking Muslims.  

The complexities of voting pattern could be assessed from the views of traders of different submarkets of Burrabazar.

For example, at the Machua fruit market, dominated by Muslim traders, the monetary loss due to GST and oil price rise has accentuated the anti-BJP sentiment.

Mohammad Sahil, a fruit merchant at Machua, says in the last three years, the daily arrival of grapes has gone down five times. Earlier, everyday about 50 trucks of grapes would arrive, which has now come down to about 10 trucks. S Alwar, another fruit merchant in the market, says daily fruit arrival from Nashik has come down by nearly 20 per cent in the last three to four years.

According to Rajkumar Sonkar, president, Machua Bazar Fruits Merchant Association, the supply of fruits from centres like Shimla and Nashik have substantially gone down in the last three to four years, leading to an increase in prices, which has led down to reduction in sales.

“The cost of production and transportation has substantially gone up. Due to increase in prices, the number of buyers has gone down. Farmers too are not getting enough remuneration for growing fruits, which has squeezed the supply, putting pressure on prices,” says Sonkar.

Just about a half kilometer away from Mechua fruit market, the sentiments are different. At the market for dry fruits, flanked with saffron flags, the impact of GST is more visible than that in fruits market, which is out of purview of tax. With dry fruits now subject to GST ranging between 5 to 15 per cent, the profit margins have gone down drastically.

Earlier,  profit margins per kilogram from sale of cashews ranged between Rs 10 to 15, which has now come down to between Rs 2 to 5, says Samaresh Singh, a dry fruit wholeseller.

Despite shrinking profitability, Singh holds a rather apolitical view.  “It doesn’t matter which government comes at the centre,” he says.

Ramjalal Agarwal, another dry fruit whole seller believes, GST has led to a more organised flow of trade than that before/

“With GST, although profits have gone down, the trade has become hassle free,” says Agarwal.

Notably, on the back of Modi wave in 2104 Lok Sabha elections, the vote share of BJP in North Kolkata had increased by 21.66 per cent, while that of TMC fell by 16.96 per cent.  

This year, BJP’s vote share in North Kolkata may still rise, but not enough to win the seat due to the presence of substantial Muslim voters and the impact of demonetization and GST, says a TMC leader on condition of anonymity.

Sobodh Singh, a porter earning about Rs 150 per day at Burrabazar, will not go to his native in Bihar this year to cast his vote. For Singh, elections hold little value, as he doesn’t believe that his fortunes will ever change in any government at the centre.

“We will continue to slog in sun and dust. Doesn’t matter who wins the election,” he says.