IMPHAL: The ongoing economic blockade in Manipur and demonetisation have dealt a dual blow to the traders dealing with poll materials with orders and delivery badly hit due to a dearth of raw materials.
"Every time during the elections, we bring in lot of raw materials for making poll materials but this time we could not do it—firstly due to the blockade and secondly, due to demonetisation post which we were short of cash," a trader dealing with poll material said.
"Not only political parties but traders dealing with campaign material also eagerly wait for elections as it’s a boom time for them. But demonetisation and a dearth of raw materials due to the ongoing economic blockade have affected the traders who are in the business of campaign materials", a trader said.
Campaign materials like posters, flex, paper posters, flags, printed with party symbols have been top draws among the parties during the previous elections but this time, both orders and deliveries have been badly hit.
With the scrapping of the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, traders could not pay wages to the labourers who made those materials.
Cutting across political lines, parties have also squeezed poll spending in this election following economic blockade and strict supervision of Election Commission.
(With inputs from PTI)