Ramesh said the opposition alliance’s demonstration at Ramlila Maidan had attracted visitors who could also support local traders. He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of using fears about market closures to undermine the protest and divert attention from allegations concerning electoral rolls and the Election Commission.
His assertions, however, faced a direct challenge from the Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI), whose chairman, Brijesh Goyal, estimated that traders had lost between Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 11,000 crore because of disruption associated with Sunday’s rally. Those figures remain estimates rather than independently established losses.
Goyal claimed that approximately 250,000 shops had remained closed across 20 to 25 markets around the venue. He said the affected commercial areas contained roughly 300,000 shops, and attributed closures partly to apprehension about crowds, traffic restrictions and the movement of vehicles.
The sharply different accounts have turned the commercial impact of the opposition demonstration into another political dispute. Ramesh pointed to accounts of shops remaining open and markets conducting business, while the traders’ organisation described widespread closures and interrupted deliveries during the important shopping period preceding Diwali.
Writing on X in Hindi, Ramesh accused the BJP of spreading a misleading narrative that businesses would suffer and markets would have to close. He argued that people travelling to Delhi from elsewhere would also purchase goods, benefiting shopkeepers either directly or indirectly.
He alleged that the campaign was designed to keep people away from Ramlila Maidan and shift attention from the opposition’s allegations of electoral malpractice. Ramesh also linked the criticism of the rally to the alliance’s demand for accountability from Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The BJP has rejected the opposition’s broader allegations about the electoral process and criticised the demonstration. Party leaders questioned its attendance and accused Congress and its allies of disregarding the concerns of small businesses during the festive shopping season.
Before the rally, the BJP had publicly criticised Rahul Gandhi and the INDIA bloc for proceeding despite warnings about possible commercial losses. Its argument echoed concerns expressed by traders’ associations, although those organisations maintained that their objections concerned business disruption rather than support for a political party.
The rally formed part of the opposition alliance’s campaign against alleged irregularities in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls. Congress leaders and their allies have questioned the Election Commission’s handling of the exercise and called for greater scrutiny of the electoral process. The allegations remain contested.
The Chamber of Trade and Industry had appealed to Congress leaders to postpone the gathering until after Diwali, citing the proximity of major wholesale and retail markets to Ramlila Maidan. It warned that restrictions on movement could prevent shoppers, suppliers and delivery vehicles from reaching commercial districts.
Other traders’ associations also approached opposition leaders before Sunday, seeking a change of date. Their concerns covered markets including Sadar Bazaar, Khari Baoli and Chandni Chowk, where wholesale transactions and seasonal retail demand make transport access particularly important.
Goyal subsequently claimed that hundreds of thousands of customers and business visitors had stayed away from Delhi’s markets. He also said thousands of goods vehicles could not operate normally, disrupting loading and unloading activities. The scale of those disruptions has not been independently confirmed.
Traders in Connaught Place separately described weak customer demand around the time of the protest, citing occupied parking spaces and concerns about congestion. Their accounts complicate Ramesh’s assertion that warnings of damage to trade had been disproved, without establishing the citywide financial impact claimed by the CTI.
The opposition’s gathering also prompted a separate dispute over crowd numbers. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra challenged the organisers’ claims about attendance and described parts of the venue as empty. The competing political assessments did not provide an independently verified count of participants.
The CTI had previously suggested shifting the rally to another venue if postponement proved impossible, arguing that a location farther from the busiest trading areas would reduce disruption. Its appeals were addressed to Congress leaders ahead of the November 1 event. Suggested alternatives included Burari Ground and Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which the organisation considered less disruptive to central Delhi’s commercial activity.
