Traders suffer as parties shelve old-school campaigning

Tough guidelines by the Election Commission on poll expenses and the growing use of social media by candidates is hurting traders in the business of manufacturing campaign material.

Tough guidelines by the Election Commission on poll expenses and the growing use of social media by candidates is hurting traders in the business of manufacturing campaign material.

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Sadar Baazar, once a hub of traders dealing in such material, is now left with only eight traders out of 30. And even these eight traders are finding it hard to keep their shops open.

Kishore Khurana, a trader who closed his 15-year-old business of election campaign material this election, said, “Earlier almost every article manufactured for the elections used to sell. But now carrying out this business has become very difficult. Police seize our products in the name of code violation. Our customers were so afraid that we hardly received orders, and had to shut shop.”

Rohit Rakhi, a small trader, is finding it difficult to recover the anticipated loss. “I hardly see any customer looking for election material. I remember when we were young, there was a craze to acquire maximum badges, flag banners, head gears in the peer group. All of this seems to have died down now,” he added.

Some traders also blame the new media that has taken over conventional ways of campaigning for the decline in the sale of election material.To save several small workers and traders who rely on sales from election campaign material for a living, the All India Election Material Manufacturer and Traders Association has now written to the election commission. “In reply to our plea, the EC has made it clear that normal publicity materials such as cardboards, badges, paper caps, masks, etc, are not covered under the provision of section 127 A of the Representation of People Act, 1951 and should not be seized,” said Gulshan Khurana, general secretary of All India Election Material Manufacturer and Traders Association.

Plea to EC
The EC has said that publicity materials such as cardboards, badges, paper caps, masks, etc, are not covered under Section 127 A of the Representation of People Act, 1951 and should not be seized.