Obsession to sell election material takes them places

Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 23

Mohammad Hamza is busy attaching flags while another member of his team is counting boxes of posters as election frenzy reaches crescendo with the nearing of the MC poll. Hamza and Shoib Mustafa Muzzafarnagar are not in favour or against any party. They support all parties and candidates, who come to them for advertising and promotional material, to power their election campaigns. They have been making promotional material from their grandfather’s time.

Their primary business is printing and advertising. Driven by special interest in elections they pack their bags and reach any state, which is going to poll. They have complete packages and material for electioneering including banners, flags, flexes, hoardings, ‘siropas’, posters, stickers, buntings, caps and T-shirts.

“We have our tie-ups with printers in state and get the material printed according to the need,” said Hamza.

“We prepare all the advertising material for any party, which has the ‘wave’ and is more likely to win. After elections symbols are allotted to candidates we prepare promotional material on order,” said Mustafa.

“We are keen on all advertising material, but smaller is the level of the election, more is the business for us because higher is the number of candidates in fray,” he said.

“Our business is more in panchayat-level elections as many candidates from different villages try their luck in this poll,” he added.