Moneycontrol on the Road | Banner-making stores of Ahmedabad are no less than a secret society

Gujarat Banners and Arts, located in the bylanes of Jamalpur in Ahmedabad, may not ring a bell immediately. However, this store and a line of others on this street make election material for political parties across the country. Be it Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Indian National Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party, most of the banners are made here.

However, the tough fight between political parties also seems to have extended into this market.

"We maintain utmost secrecy when printing the material. While it may look like common knowledge for everyone, we are required to maintain high levels of confidentiality," said Ilyas Ahmed, owner of Ajmeri banners.

The industry is estimated to be Rs 1,000 crore with the general elections accounting for the bulk of the revenue. In fact, stores like GD Banners are active only during the election season.

"While I cannot reveal which party gives maximum revenue, we get orders from as far as Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal," said Gadilal Shah, owner of GD Banners.

Once the order is placed, all details related to the requirements are collected. One employee works on individual party orders to ensure that there is no mix-up of the finished goods.

"When the political party representatives collect the campaign material, we delete all the records from our computers," said Shah.

Were they always this secretive?

In 2017, a part of an order at a Jamalpul store was delivered to the wrong party which then tweaked the campaign to make it their own. Ahmed said to prevent any such untoward incidents, they do not share specifics of the order.

"Some parties have catchy slogans which they want to reveal only during a campaign rally. Hence it is essential that we maintain the confidentiality," said Zoaib Karachiwala, a banner merchant.

So what do they do after elections? While a few shop owners go back to their villages to do farming, several others continue to get small to mid-sized orders from across the region.

"Even if there is no election, political parties have events/rallies all year through. Hence there is never really a complete lull in our business," added Shah.