Women workers force ink on T-shirts placed in a neat row through a prepared screen of fine material so as to create an image of a political party leader and his election symbol.
“Elections bring us extra business. During events like mega runs, political yatras or mahasabhas, we cater to their needs by printing T-shirts or other outfits with specific logos,” says Radha Rani, proprietor of RR Sports Wear, one of the biggest sports wear manufacturer in South India.
The showroom, located in Swamy Street in Gandhinagar, is attached with a screen printing unit where skilled workers, 90 per cent of them women, do their job with utmost dexterity.
It is election time and the city landscape is speckled with lakhs of screen printed political logos. Campaign managers of political parties place orders with these units that churn out publicity material.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is conspicuous by its omnipresence in the form of yellow T-shirts or ‘khanduvas’, a piece of fabric worn around the neck.
“We are feeling the pinch of Congress leader Lagadapati Rajagopal’s absence who used to place bulk orders. Now, the TDP is in the forefront as far as spending on publicity material is concerned,” says owner of yet another screen printing unit in the same locality.
A few others of the ilk indicate decline in the trend and attribute it to the restrictions imposed by the Election Commission.
“Parties now use printed fabrics mostly in rural areas. They procure the material from here and shift it to the second rung leaders in villagers which are not on the vigilance radar,” says Gowtham who operates a printing unit at Machavaram.
“We make some extra money in elections thanks to the parties’ eagerness to reach out to the masses through these feats,” admits Srinivasa Rao, who is busy designing caps for Aam Aadmi Party. The party has placed orders for nearly 65,000 caps.
“Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, dubbed as India’s Manchester, eats into a major chunk of the textile printing business in election season. The place contributes to more than 60 per cent of the printing activities in Southern India and the district receives massive orders from political parties from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala for T-shirts and caps,” says Lok Satta Party district secretary Ch. Vazeer, informing that the party gets its publicity material from its Hyderabad office.
