KOLKATA: Their work is noticeable at every nook and corner of the city in the run-up to the elections, but their hard labour doesn’t always pay. In
case you are wondering, we are talking about the banner and festoon artists, arguably one of the most important backroom men in election season.

The reason that their work sometimes goes unrewarded is simple: Those who lose the election simply don’t bother to pay, and the winners often dangle a carrot future orders and pay them much less.

“During the last election, I got a cumulative order of more than Rs 10,000 from all parties. While a section of Trinamool Congress supporters paid us nothing apart from the advance, CPM supporters paid us around Rs 2000 less after three months of the election,” said Sumeet Ray, an artist based in Golf Green.

Those who are old in this profession said that this trend is on the rise over the last 10-15 years, as the orders are now being placed by floor-level party leaders.

“When I was young, I saw heavyweights Bholanath Sen, Dilip Chakravarty and Biplab Dasgupta coming to our studio to place orders. Forget the candidates; not even senior leaders bother to do these jobs,” said Manojit Mitra, who owns a Kalighat studio, established in 1941.

There was a time when banners were more in use, for which good artists were much in demand. But now, with the advent of technologies like flex printing, the number of studios have increased, thereby making the competition tough.

Over the last three years, the rate of flex printing has come down from Rs 12 per square feet to Rs 10 square feet. This year, a few studios are selling flex prints even at Rs 8 or Rs 9 per square feet.

“Our profit margin is reducing by the day. Now, if we don’t get our payments as promised, chances are high that we will incur a huge loss,” said Biplab Banerjee, who runs a small studio on E M Bypass.

Subhajit Mukherjee, who has got a big flex printing order for Mamata Banerjee and Kabir Suman, said that with restrictions on graffiti, the number of hoardings has increased by 10% to 15% considering the orders made during the 2004 Lok Sabha election. “Although I have never faced any problem with payments in the past, the risk remains. After investing, if we don’t get the return, we would make a loss,” he said.

Campaign leaders of political leaders, however, said that such cases were not the norm. “Generally, we make full payments at the time of delivery,” said Mofarjal Hossain, campaign manager for Kabir Suman.

South Kolkata CPM candidate Rabin Deb also claimed his party was not used to such a practice. “We have an organized structure to maintain our budget during the election. We don’t cross our limit when we place orders; this helps us to make full payments,” he said.