Surat (India), Asia’s largest hub of man-made fabric and Gujarat’s richest city that grounded to a halt a few months ago as thousands of textile and diamond traders shut down markets in protest against the imposition of Goods and Services Tax (GST), gave a thumping win to the ruling party BJP in the State elections. The party won 15 of the 16 seats in the city, which is home to around 65,000 traders, mostly Patidars.
Ahmedabad, another textile hub and a major urban area that has 21 seats, also gave a big win to BJP as the party won 15 of these seats. The saffron party also gained much ground in Vadodara and Rajkot, where large trader communities were affected by demonetisation as well as GST.
“No doubt, we were unhappy with the GST but the BJP Government in the state and at the Centre took several steps to correct the mistakes. On the other hand, we were not confident that the Congress would solve our problems. It is BJP which is ruling at the Centre and the trading community is comfortable with this party,” said Sanjay Jagnani, former President of Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association.
As per the Federation, Surat, with a daily turnover of Rs. 400 crores, is running 700,000 looms to manufacture 4 crore metres of cloth every day. The city also houses around 125,000 embroidery units.
