Sale of pamphlets, posters down in Rajasthan

Restrictions imposed on campaigning expenses of the political parties by the Election Commission have badly impacted the sale of pamphlets, posters and hoardings during the Lok Sabha polls in Rajasthan, say manufacturers of the publicity material.

Voting for the state's 25 parliamentary constituencies will take place April 17 and 24. With the elections just 20 days away, manufacturers have recorded a drop of 50 percent in the sale of campaigning item as compared to the last Lok Sabha elections.

Manufacturers said that they used to sell posting, hoarding, pamphlets and other campaigning items worth Rs.50-60 crore during the Lok Sabha elections, but the demand this year is only half of that.

"However, owing to the restrictions imposed by the poll panel, the orders from political parties for campaigning items have dropped by 50 percent this time," said Rajesh Agrawal, a leading manufacture in the state.

Besides the poll panel's restrictions, a new trend of campaigning has also led to adverse impact on the sale of item.

"Earlier the local leaders used to place orders for campaigning items separately. Now it seems that the parties have made the purchase of campaigning items centralized. The parties are purchasing campaigning items in bulk after designing them according to recommendations by the campaigning advisors and distribute them to local leaders," said Agrawal.

The trend has proved to be a double whammy for the local suppliers of campaigning items, he said.

"We are getting more orders from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh than from Rajasthan," Agrawal said.

The poll panel has issued an order to all district collectors in which they have been asked to ensure each poster, banner, hoarding or other such items used for publicity by the political parties carries the information about its manufacture and publisher.

A letter containing identification proof and proclaiming that particular batch of posters, hoardings or pamphlets was manufactured by a publisher will have to be self-attested by the publisher in the presence of two witnesses.

The officer said the publisher will then send the letter to the printer.

A copy of the letter and copies of the published items will have to be forwarded to the chief election officer and the district magistrate concerned.