For them,polls mean business

Thanks to the searing heat,dance troupes have given way to juice sellers,who help quench the thirst during these testing times.

Sant Singh,who runs a tent house in Haibowal,is a happy man these days. He claims that his business has risen by nearly 50 per cent. “Actually,election times have coincided with the wedding season. Last week,we were full to the brim with orders for tents,carpets and chairs,so much so that we had to rent infrastructure from smaller tent houses. Later,we had to refuse a couple of orders as we had rented out our entire stuff.”

Rakesh Kumar,another tent-house owner,said,”Basically,local leaders especially councillors are our biggest clientele,who use our stuff for rallies. The rally spots in a given area are fixed. So what we do is put up one pandal,which is used by all the parties. It is interesting to see leaders spewing venom against each other standing on the same stage,sitting on the same sofa or using the same mike that his rival had used just a few hours ago.”

With printing material being an integral part of the campaigning,the fine print is that they too are cashing on the poll campaign. Navchetan Singh,one such printer,said,”From banners,posters,to pamphlets,sun caps and brochures,candidates need a lot of printed material. The election is like a silver lining as our industry is severely hit by recession. It is not that we get to do a huge business for there is a lot of under cutting in our profession yet a spurt of about 20 per cent than the normal is expected.”

However,handling politicians is always not an easy task. “Politicians place orders in bulk. They want 10,000 posters or pamphlets and we print them but when it comes to making payments,they are the worst. What is worse is that they will keep us waiting till the end of elections or even after the results are announced. And if this happens,then the chances of getting our payments gets even more remote for if the candidate wins then he is on a high and forgets about all he owes to us and if he loses then his loss becomes his garb for not making the payment.”

However,people doing small businesses around the rally spots are the happiest lot. Suresh,an ice cream vendor,says,”Yesterday,a candidate was scheduled to address a rally and he was late by almost two hours. People were waiting for him and the organisers bought all my ice creams and distributed them amongst the audience.”