Sweet politics

In Kolkata, sweet shops and confectioneries are sugar-coating the Assembly elections.

The bitter battle between the Trinamool Congress and the CPI (M) has a sweet side to it. And the credit for this goes to Kolkata’s sweetmeat shops and confectioneries which are offering sweets prepared specially to mark the Assembly elections.

“We have introduced three types of sandesh made from churned milk which carry the party symbols of the TMC, CPI (M) and the Congress,” says Sudip Mullick of Balaram Mullick & Radharaman Mullick, one of Kolkata’s noted sweetmeat shops. This is not the first time the Mullicks are ensuring that their sweets live up to the occasion. During the World Cup, they came with “World Cup Sandesh”, which was shaped like the World Cup and was an instant hit. They also had sandesh in the shape of the flags of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. “These elections are important. We wanted to create something special to mark them,” says Mullick. The shop has been selling 150 to 200 party symbol sandesh, priced at Rs 75 per piece, in a day. Mullick says the ‘jora phul’ or the TMC symbol is selling the most.

Sweet makers in Howrah too are offering rasgullas in red and green, representing the two primary colours of the CPI (M) and the TMC, respectively. Confectionery chain Kookie Jar, which has been in Kolkata for 25 years, has come up with cookies shaped like the party symbol. “We wanted to create something new out of the ‘change’ versus ‘resurgence’ battle,” says Lovey Burman, proprietor of Kookie Jar. “We are offering TMC and CPI (M) party symbol cookies for Rs 65 per piece at our four outlets in South City, Rawdon Street, New Alipore and City Centre (Salt Lake),” adds Burman.

Others, however, have decided not to mix business and politics. “We are not selling any election-related products because of the risk involved,” says Shekhar Nandi of Monginis Confectionery. “Products with symbols of political parties can spell trouble if party supporters do not find cakes or other sweets with their symbol in the shop. It wouldn’t matter if the product had been sold out,” says Nandi.

Owners of Kathleen Confectioners say there’s a flood of orders from various political parties once the election results are out. “Like always, we are expecting orders after the results when party members gift designer cakes to their leaders,” says Pradip Biswas of Kathleen Confectioners. Biswas recalls seeing a picture in a newspaper which had Mamata Banerjee cutting a 70-pound cake shaped like the Hilsa fish, which TMC workers had ordered from Kathleen Confectioners during a celebration at TMC Bhavan.

While these innovative sweets have drawn people’s interest, not everybody is happy with the concept. “Though people are buying election-related sweets in large numbers, some of our customers have criticised the initiative saying that mishtis (sweets) should be kept away from politics,” says Mullick whose Bhowanipur shop is one of Mamata Banerjee’s favourite stops for mishti doi. Kolkata’s Mayor Shovan Chatterjee is also a frequent visitor.

Whatever be the election result, sweet shop owners hope the business continues to be sweet.