The Assembly elections in Rajasthan are approaching, but traders selling the traditional campaign items are far from optimistic as demand has fallen this year compared to previous polls.
The elections in Rajasthan will be held on November 25 and the results will be declared on December 3.
Apart from billboards, the streets and intersections are not decorated with flags and banners of the parties participating in the elections.
Lokesh Aggarwal of Chhaganlal & Sons, one of the oldest manufacturers of election campaign materials in the state, said, “As per our estimates, candidates of major political parties spent around Rs 100-150 crore on campaign materials during the elections and bought from state vendors and manufacturers. election of the municipal council.”
“However, according to trade estimates, this figure should have come down to almost half this time, and in total the parties should have spent only Rs 75-80 crore on campaign materials till November 14,” Aggarwal said.
Demand is low, both from political parties and independent parties fighting the polls.
“Even in the next eight to nine days, we do not expect any major increase in demand,” Aggarwal said.
Suresh Jhalani of Trupti Enterprises, who has set up shop outside the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee office here, said that due to low demand for usual promotional materials, new items have been created this time along with old traditional items.
“Traditional flags, caps, batches, wristbands, stickers and dummy EVM machines are being prepared for sale. Flags, depending on the size, are sold for Rs 10 to Rs 40, bandanas from Rs 3 to Rs 18, caps from Rs 2 to Rs 40, wristbands for Rs 6, stickers from Rs 5 to Rs 20, and dummy EVM ranging from Rs 120 to Rs 180,” he added.
Aggarwal and Jhalani said the other reason for the low demand is that the promotional material has been brought by political parties from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
“Earlier we had good business from all over the state, but this time it seems that candidates are buying campaign and publicity materials from other states. We don’t understand the reason behind that. Maybe it’s available at lower rates. But when it comes to quality, we are as good as others,” said a vendor selling products near the convention office here.
“We all hope that the rallies or public gatherings will gain momentum and there will be some demand again after Diwali,” the vendor said.
