New Delhi: Election paraphernalia in India’s largest wholesale market—Sadar Bazaar in Delhi—are in high demand, as political party workers and common citizens make a beeline to these shops.
Walking down the cramped bylanes of Sadar Bazaar, a little ahead of the Bara Tooti Chowk, one can find these small and big shops filled with Bharatiya Janata Party flags, lotus motifs, party symbol badges, scarves cof both the BJP and Congress and masks and T-shirts with motifs of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
In almost all the shops at the Sadar Bazaar that this correspondent visited, shop owners said that the demand for BJP’s campaign material is higher than any other political party, which is also visible from the huge number of BJP party flags stacked in almost all the shops. Harpreet Singh told The Sunday Guardian that the demand for BJP campaign material is very high compared to other political parties.
“The BJP has put in a lot of orders this time. We have conceptualised several new and innovative promotion and campaign materials like watches, sunglasses, Modi statues and even notebooks. These items are being bought by common people who come here from across the country. We have also got huge orders from Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for BJP flags, party symbol badges, pens and caps, most of which have been dispatched already,” Harpreet Singh said.
Shop owners said that this time, a huge demand is coming from common people. “Main Bhi Chowkidar” T-shirts and caps and Modi masks are among the most popular items that are being brought by youngsters.
The Sunday Guardian met such a group of young boys who had come to Sadar Bazaar from Churu in Rajasthan looking for “Main Bhi Chowkidar” T-shirts.
These boys claimed that they are not affiliated to any political party and were inspired by the “Main Bhi Chowkidar” campaign.
Roshan, one of the boys, said: “We want to be a part of this campaign as we are all Chowkidars of the nation. We are looking for Main Bhi Chowkidar T-shirts to take back to our village in Churu, where everyone wants this T-shirt. The BJP is definitely going to win from there.”
Chaman Bhai, a wholesaler of election publicity material at Sadar Bazaar, claimed to have designed the Aam Aadmi Party cap in 2014 and he said that this time, the BJP is way ahead of any other political party in terms of getting their publicity material: “I had designed the AAP cap in 2014 and we still have loyal AAP customers with us, but this time we haven’t yet received any big order from AAP. Demand for BJP publicity material is very high. ‘NaMo Again’ T-shirts are very popular, caps with Modi’s photo are also being sold, apart from the regular flags and badges.”
The demand for Congress’ publicity material has decreased this year, according to wholesalers at Sadar Bazaar. However, on the contrary, they said that the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has also placed huge orders from some of them, mainly of flags and badges.