Saffron laddoo, lotus sandesh, orange rosogolla — orders for thousands of sweets had been placed by one party, the BJP. The party functionaries had promised to call the shops by Tuesday afternoon to confirm the orders. No one did.

By Tuesday afternoon, many sweet-sellers were hurriedly preparing new varieties like green rosogolla as orders from the Trinamool Congress started coming in thick and fast.

By late evening, all of them said they were struggling to cater to the rising demand
of green sweets from Trinamool candidates and their supporters.

“There were orders from Calcutta, Barrackpore and parts of Hooghly for orange rasogolla and lotus sandesh from party functionaries. The majority of them had said they would confirm the orders by Tuesday afternoon so we could deliver the sweets by evening, fresh. But from Tuesday afternoon, calls stopped coming and some of the party functionaries didn’t answer our calls,” said Amitava Dey of Felu Modak, a sweet shop in Hooghly’s Rishra that is more than 150 years old.

“The plan was to start preparing orange rasogolla and lotus sandesh from late afternoon. We switched to green rasogolla.”

After the TV channels telecast the exit poll results on Saturday evening, many shops across the city started preparing sweets of various hues. The stress was more on orange as the owners were expecting a surge in orders from BJP supporters.

The owner of a sweet shop on Rashbehari Avenue said the lotus sandesh they had planned to prepare would cost Rs 90 each. The cottage cheese for the sandesh would be done with a chocolate flavour to form a darkish backdrop, on which would stand the lotus on a green stem.

“We don’t think even one piece would sell now,” the owner said,

By late evening, as the final margins started emerging, sweet shops across Burrabazar, Canning Street and Burtolla Street, which are famous for their laddoos and kaju barfis, lacked the turnout they had witnessed in 2019.

Mishti and poll results have always gone hand in hand in Calcutta and the districts. Depending on personal preferences party functionaries would turn up before the leaders the morning after the results carrying sandesh, rasogolla and even sweet curd.

Several sweet shop owners across Calcutta said the orders would start pouring in from Wednesday morning when the leaders and workers would like to gift sweets to their leaders.