Delhi traders ask Rahul Gandhi to postpone November 1 rally

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Delhi's Chamber of Trade and Industry has written to opposition leader Rahul Gandhi asking him to postpone a November 1 rally, warning that barricades, traffic restrictions and metro station closures threaten trade worth Rs 25,000 crore — close to $3 billion — at the height of the Diwali shopping season.

The rally, called by the Congress-led INDIA bloc to protest alleged electoral irregularities, is scheduled for Ramlila Maidan, within five kilometres of twenty of Delhi's historic wholesale and retail markets: Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazaar, Khari Baoli and Karol Bagh among them. Goods from these markets are supplied across India. Dhanteras falls on November 6 and Diwali on November 8, and shopping begins a week in advance, which places the rally squarely inside the peak. The chamber's letter, sent on October 24, asks for a postponement until after Bhai Dooj on November 10.

The Rs 25,000 crore of Dhanteras trade covers gold, silver, utensils, electronics, clothing, sweets, automobiles and furniture. Traders have already lost roughly Rs 3,000 crore in October, the chamber estimates, from continuous rallies, marches and road closures around Connaught Place, India Gate and central Delhi. Goods are not arriving in the wholesale markets and customers cannot reach the retail ones. The Old Delhi and New Delhi railway stations sit next to the maidan, serving thousands of traders and outstation shoppers a day, and the chamber warns that closures and crowds could deter them from coming at all.

The Congress has been asked to weigh the traders' concerns before proceeding. The rally is booked for November 1; shopping for Dhanteras begins a week before November 6.