Patna’s flower and sweetmeat sellers keep stock ready, expect bumper sale on poll counting day

Patna, Nov 13 (PTI) Flower and sweetmeat sellers of Patna are maintaining a large stock expecting brisk business on Friday, when votes for the assembly polls will be counted, as winning leaders will be garlanded and laddoos distributed among their followers.

The electoral fate of the candidates are sealed in EVMs, which will be opened at 8 am on Friday. And thereafter, the small businessmen hope, their lady luck will smile.

Karan and Vikram, two teenage brothers selling marigold flowers under the GPO Golambar flyover, have received orders for around 400 bouquets for Friday.

The order for garlands, they expect, will also come.

Vikram, the younger brother, said, "Nobody knows who will win the elections. Once the trends start coming tomorrow, the picture will be clearer. And, hopefully, orders will start coming.” The order for bouquets, they said, has come from an RJD worker.

Both brothers are confident of "making garlands in quick time," adding that their father, too, will join them on the counting day.

Deepak Malakar had almost wound up and was ready to go home.

"Not many orders have come from political parties thus far. Let's see what happens tomorrow," he said. Malakar has pinned his larger hopes from 'lagan' (wedding season in Bihar).

The flower sellers in Kankarbagh and Mahavir Mandir areas seemed relatively more upbeat.

Poonam Devi in Kankarbagh said, "I have been seeing this for the last 15 years or so. Party workers and local politicians throng in large numbers. I am expecting a day of good fortune on Friday." Madhukar Ram said he is expecting bumper sales. “I had ordered good quality marigold, rose and lavender flowers from West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, and orders till now have not disappointed me," he said.

Roshan Thakur, who hails from Maner, was selling flowers near Patna's Hanuman Mandir. "We normally have a more or less stable sale, but times like these and wedding seasons are a good boost to our incomes," he said.

Like flower sellers, sweet shops, too, have a lot to mine from.

Anticipating its victory in the 2025 Bihar assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party has already ordered 501 kg of laddoo.

"Sweetmeats are indispensable on these occasions. They (politicians) will definitely come to us when the results are out," a shop owner in Patna's Patliputra Colony area said with a laughter.

Sweetmeat makers across Patna are now operating with a different kind of energy, he said.

Meanwhile, JDU's candidate from Mokama, Anant Singh, has kept cooks busy at his residence in Patna by inviting supporters for a grand feast on Friday.

Offices of all the major parties are buzzing with activities right now, and electors, who have already shown their enthusiasm through a record turnout, are keeping their fingers crossed. PTI SUK NN