With just days left for the Delhi election, Sadar Bazaar -- the buzzing wholesale market in north Delhi -- desperately awaits customers as piles of election merchandise lie unsold in the many crammed pint-sized shops.
Famous for selling all kinds of election paraphernalia, starting from slogan-bearing T-shirts, flags and scarves to the latest 'mobile stickers' and umbrella with party symbols embossed on it, business at Sadar Bazaar is at its lowest this election season, thanks to the abysmal sales.
The election for the 70 Assembly seats in Delhi will take place on February 8 and the counting of votes will be done on February 11.
Sales of election merchandise have dipped by 60-70 per cent this time, shopkeepers said on Wednesday.
"This should be the peak business season for shopkeepers selling election merchandise in Sadar Bazaar, but look at me -- or for that matter any other vendor here -- we all are sitting idle.
"There is simply no demand. Things have never been this bad before," said Lakshay Nagpal from Muskan Enterprises, who has been selling election publicity material for past 15 years.
Badges and flags cost around Rs 1.50 per piece, T-Shirts and caps -- depending on its quality -- ranges from Rs 40 - Rs 150 and Rs 1- Rs 30, respectively, he explains.
Vikram Singh from GV Traders, who claimed to be selling the products at far lesser rates than its original manufacturing cost, said there is "zero demand" this time and he is seriously thinking of closing the business.
"Back in the day, such was the demand that we used to open our shops early in the morning and close very late in the night. Now, I am mostly sitting at home because there are just no buyers. We sell election publicity material 365 days, but looking at how things are going, I guess I need to shift to seasonal business," said Singh.
He argued that elections in the national capital, in comparison to elections in other states, have never been great for business.
"The campaign done here is more extravagant and hi-tech and does not completely rely on traditional publicity materials like flags, balloons, bunting, festoon, banners and other goods.
"Other states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab are more into these items. Plus not only the candidates, there are a lot of party supporters who buy these materials in hordes," he explained.
While some blamed the downfall in business to the digitisation of election campaigning as many political parties were using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, for others the reason behind low sales was that the political parties were now distributing the election publicity material directly to their candidates after procuring it from somewhere else.
"Earlier the candidates used to keep aside a certain amount to procure these election merchandise and subsequently purchase it from us. Now, it is the party head office which distributes them.
"Of course, the party too would be buying them from somewhere but what they are buying is pretty less from what candidates earlier used to buy. Also, not all of them are buying from Sadar Bazaar," said Sanjay Jain from Aaroma Enterprises, who manufactured goods worth Rs 40 lakhs for the upcoming elections.
That said, from whatever little business the shopkeepers here are making, a good chunk of it is coming from Aam Aadmi Party's merchandise, they claimed.
"AAP's cap and scarves are best-sellers. BJP flags are a distant second and the Congress is just nowhere in the picture," he added.
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