This youngster who earns a living by making metal containers is an active worker of a political party too. Now he is working overnight to make metal megaphones that are now on a comeback trail this election season. He has orders for his product from parties, including his own.
M.P. Sameer, 36, who runs a metal wares workshop in the heart of the town, has his ear to the ground to get a sense of the new trend.
Member of the CPI(M) Thalassery town local committee and DYFI leader here, Sameer felt the changing trend during the local body and Assembly election campaigns and is now using his skills to make the best out of the new trend. He is selling the cone-shaped acoustic metal horn to grassroots-level poll campaigners of all hues.
“I have sold nearly 600 metal megaphones to both the CPI(M) and Congress workers since the election campaign began,” said Sameer. As people are more sensitive to sound pollution and election campaign in local levels is more focused on booth-level meetings, the metal megaphone made of zinc layers, locally known as ‘kaalam' in Malayalam, becomes very handy and less expensive, he added.
Sameer sells small megaphones at ₹250 and larger ones at ₹350. During the local body and Assembly elections he had sold nearly 50 megaphones. After the Lok Sabha election campaign began, he thought he could sell nearly 150 horns.
But the demand for what was an integral part of the election campaign of yore has exceeded his anticipation. He said he learnt the skill for making the horns from his father.