Flag bearers of poll campaign

Shaik Osman’s workshop at Mylardevpally is one location where symbols and colours of various political parties remain in total harmony, irrespective of the differences they will project into the mind of the common man once they are out.

The workshop in a nondescript lane of Mughal Colony is where local women converge in the morning and youth in the evening, to sweat it out on production of flags, caps, buntings and scarves for the ongoing election campaigns.

Burning midnight oil

“On normal days, only women work here in the day shift. But now, the work is so much that I am running the workshops in two shifts, up to 2 a.m.,” says Osman, supervising the unloading of a truck full of printed flag material.

He has three workshops in the locality, employing 200 workers in both shifts. Besides, he outsources stitching to women working from home, thus employing 300 more. The work keeps them so busy that Madhuri, a woman of few means, has earned ₹54,000 last month alone, by stitching flags. “I could not finish the job alone, so I have roped in my husband and two children, too, for the work,” she says.

Mohammed Afroz pursuing B.Com comes to the workshop on a payment of ₹7,500 per month. “My father is an autorickshaw driver and I have four siblings, all younger than me. I work here for the pocket money my family cannot provide,” he says.

The kind



of moolah Osman makes is visible in the crores of flags he churns out during the season.

Raw material, either in satin or roto polyester, comes from Surat and Sircilla. Dying and printing is outsourced to small units in Shadnagar, Choutuppal and Medchal from where cloth arrives in lots. At workshop, it is cut into required shapes and stitched.

He gets his orders even from places as far as Jammu & Kashmir, Bengal and Assam too. Business brooks no political differences, so one can see all hues — local and national — at one place here. Arch rivals such as TDP, YSRCP and Janasena, or BJP and MIM, lie impassively one over the other. “Mehbooba Mufti and Mamata Banerjee, both are my customers,” he beams.

For the Parliament elections, he has orders from various States including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Bengal. The biggest order so far is from Bengal, he says. There are others like him, earning a quick buck during polls, though on a lesser scale.

Karunakar Reddy from Chikkadpally, obtains orders and distributes the work to households. “During the season, I get several orders from AP, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Bengal. In non-election season, I do other jobs such as digital printing,” he says.

Boora Naresh, a businessman, has production units in Sircilla, the hub of power looms, and exports campaign material to other States.