From loudspeakers to helicopters, the businesses behind election campaigns

The EC limits campaign expenses incurred by a candidate to Rs 50-70 lakh

Far from the hurly-burly of election campaigning that is the source of his bread and butter, Gulshan Khurana leans back on a leather chair and stares into his smartphone at his tiny office in New Delhi's Sadar Bazar. The cramped room is stacked with stickers, caps, flags, garlands, badges, sashes, cutouts, T-shirts and pamphlets of various political parties. A TV set and pictures of Khurana and his daughter posing with political bigwigs separate the mounds of display material.

This is a hectic time for Khurana, who is among the dozens of suppliers of election campaign material in what is one