If the sweetest part of India is Bengal, what better way to celebrate victory here than through sweets? As the results of the Assembly elections started unfolding on May 4, residents headed out to buy sweets, and to their delight, found many a variety customised for the day.
The Nepal Sweets outlet outside City Centre had a pre-order of nearly 10,000 almond barfi sweets with the BJP logo. The sweets cost Rs 50 a piece. “The customer was clearly anticipating a victory, but I had still asked him beforehand what he would do with the barfis if the result was not in their favour. He said he was still proud of his party and would not mind the purchase,” said CEO Siddharth Gupta.
They also had on offer green and saffron rasogollas, infused with natural flavours and party logo-themed sandesh, crafted into shapes such as the lotus. “Such sweets brought a burst of colour, creativity, and indulgence to the voters’ celebration,” Gupta said. Besides orders, a small quantity of BJP, TMC, and CPM logo sweets was on offer for walk-in customers too, and they had all sold out by noon.
Banchharam’s made huge 100g sandesh in both saffron and green, priced at Rs 75 a piece. “We did not want to politicise mishti as we believe it is a binder, not divider. But we got big orders from both BJP and TMC and naturally, had to meet them,” said Subhajit Ghosh, one of the directors. Banchharam’s has outlets in Salt Lake’s FC Block, Axis Mall, and Misti Hub, and walk-in customers were amused by the thematic mishtis too.
“I would have pounced at a BJP mishti if I was a party worker,” said Ranadip Bose, a therapist who stopped at Banchharam’s en route to an FD Block patient’s house. “But even otherwise, I’m happy with the verdict and am buying saffron-coloured laddus to celebrate with my patient.”
Play it safe
CA Market’s Kalpataru offered sweets in both saffron and green options, without imprinting any party symbol on them. “We cater to sweet tooths of all parties, and everyone deserves a mishti mukh upon victory,” said Prasenjit Sil from behind the counter. “But the Iran war-induced LPG crisis still looms overhead, so we had to curtail excesses and eliminate wastage. Non-political customers can buy a green or orange sandesh, but may not buy one bearing the symbol of a party he does not support. So it was better to go for the colour instead of symbol.”
Lotus-themed sandesh at Nepal Sweets, next to City Centre
Sil recalls how on previous election result days, Kalapataru would flood its shelves with green mango rasogolla and komola bhog rossogolla. Due to the LPG crisis this time, they only made a larger-than-usual batch of regular white rasogollas instead.
Gupta Brothers had on display trays of orange rasogollas, orange sandesh, mango roll, mango malai cup…. “It’s mango season, so these are our regular items anyway. Today we have simply brightened their colour and are displaying them most prominently,” said the staff of the store near the swimming pool.
Some items were exhausted by midday, and more were getting prepared in the kitchen. Boxes of laddus, which are naturally more aligned to the colour saffron, flew off shelves too.
