While T. Nagar was bathed in orange and green, the hawkers who usually walk the length of Pondy Bazaar were hoping to make a killing during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshow, but were quite disappointed.
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A. Selvam had bought ₹3,000 worth of merchandise to sell at the roadshow. Armed with pictures of Mr. Modi and BJP State president K. Annamalai, lotus flower pins, and photo-stickers, he was ready to break even. “But I haven’t even sold ₹100 worth of merchandise. We were shooed away by the police the moment they saw us. As a daily wage labourer, where else would we go,” he said.
Though people were interested in buying the items, he couldn’t set up shop anywhere. “Now, I have so many items to sell and nobody to buy, so I plan to take the train today to Vellore and sell them there at the next roadshow. At least, I may be able to break even,” Mr. Selvam added.
The story was the same for R. Sumithra and V. Chitra, who had come with sundal and mixture. “All of it is going bad. Not a single soul bought it. We came here once the crowd settled in at 3 p.m. We entered but apart from the one or two packets that we sold, the rest will be wasted,” Ms. Chithra said.