Chennai: Old-timer Arickiasamy Anbazhagan has shifted shop from the AIADMK headquarters to make the best of the growing crowd at Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam’s bungalow on Greenways Road. Hearing about the increasing public and cadre support for the ‘rebel’, he did a recce of the OPS territory on Friday and decided business would sure be good if he moved in too.
“I brought 200 pocket cards with pictures of OPS with Amma and they were sold by evening. That was pretty brisk going considering that business was not so great when I tried to sell other kinds of party memorabilia elsewhere in the past”, beamed Anbazhagan.
“I am placing order for printing 300 cards for tomorrow and thereafter I will be introducing other items such as keychains, visiting cards, letter pads and car stickers carrying pictures of OPS with Amma”.
“I used to record peak sale of about 500 cards a day in Thanjavur and Salem when Amma used to campaign for elections soon after MGR’s death. Today was a record of a different kind for me”, he said, expressing confidence that his sales graph would only climb in the next few days. “With more and more party leaders arriving here to support OPS, I expect that my sales will show steady increase”, said Anbazhagan, who had earlier sold party memorabilia at the Poes Garden bungalow of Jayalalithaa/ Sasikala, the Marina memorials of MGR/Jayalalithaa and other AIADMK sites.
Not just Anbazhagan, several small shops peddling eatables and beverages have propped up outside OPS bungalow to tap business from the growing traffic.
“I have shifted from Besant Nagar beach to sell my potato/banana chips here. Business today was too good to believe. It looks like a vibrant carnival of excited people here, and they are quite hungry”, said S. Narayanan. He is getting his cousin to also shift shop to Greenways Road on Sunday.
In contrast, the crowds at Poes Garden are getting thinner and vendors of snacks and drinks have virtually disappeared. Apart from the new excitement on Greenways Road, another reason for this could be the shifting of Sasikala loyalists to the ECR resorts, said a party senior.
