Manipur’s Dilemma
Today, as the first votes are cast in India’s general election, the spotlight naturally turns to the bustling political activities across the country.
Traders dealing with poll materials were badly hit by the ongoing economic blockade in Manipur and demonetisation due to dearth of raw materials.
"Every time during the elections, we bring in lot of raw materials for making poll materials but this time we could not do it firstly due to the blockade and secondly due to demonetization. we were short of cash initially so we could not buy poll materials," a trader dealing with poll material in Imphal said.
"Not only political parties wait for the poll season, but also traders dealing with campaign material eagerly wait for elections as it is a boom time for them. But demonetisation and dearth of raw materials due to the ongoing economic blockade have affected the traders who are in the business of campaign materials", another trader said.
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Unlike in the previous elections, both orders and delivery of campaign materials have seen a great decline. Campaign materials like posters, flex, paper posters, flags, printed with party symbols have been top draws in elections.
In addition to demonetisation woes, business in the state was affected badly as traders could not get raw materials due to the economic blockade.
"The blockade started from November 1 but after the effect of demonetisation became quite normal in January, we could not get the raw materials due to the blockade," Melam, a trader, said.
Cutting across political lines, parties have also squeezed poll spending in this upcoming election following economic blockade and strict supervision of Election Commission.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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