Poll merchandise sales pick up in Tirupur, Madurai

Tirupur/Madurai: As the Tamil Nadu assembly election is nearing, the sale of election merchandise like party flags, symbols, badges, and mufflers are sold in high volumes. TVK merchandise dominates the market in Tirupur and Madurai.Vinoth Kumar of Tirupur recently posted on social media a customized whistle with ‘TVK' and colour of the party flag embossed on it. He said, "Since then, I have been receving at least 400-450 bulk order enquiries per day, and half of them have turned into actual orders. It is being sent to various cities, including Bangalore." Similarly, B Praveen Kumar, a Tirupur-based garment store, introduced a black T-shirt with ‘whistle' symbol engraved on it and posted it online. "Since the TVK craze is everywhere, I thought of introducing a customized T-shirt after the party symbol was announced. I've been receiving more than 30 online enquiries for the T-shirts daily. We plan to introduce more customized designs based on demand." In a similar trend, a Salem-based textile store owner, Hari, introduced saris, dhothis and shirts with ‘whistle' symbol printed on them. Hari said, "We started with a sample of just 100. Within a month, over 2,500 saris have been sold, and orders have been placed for more. Currently, 20,000 more saris are being manufactured. Whereas for dhothis and shirts, nearly 10,000 have been sold out."Shops at East Avani Moola Street in Madurai city sell election merchandise. One of the shop owners even observed that the sale of TVK-related merchandise is high. Even before the announcement of the election date, they had seen such a craze to buy TVK's election merchandise.Kumar T, a shop owner who has sold election merchandise for the past 26 years and has witnessed four elections, told TOI that for the past three months TVK merchandise has seen the highest sales. "We sell all party flags of various sizes and types, including cloth and paper flags. Festoon flags were purchased for party events and conferences," he added.