Surat: Of the 70,000 shops in the city’s 165 textile markets, hardly 10 per cent reopened on the auspicious day of ‘Labh Pancham’ on Monday. It is not unusual for small establishments and shops to close for five days after Diwali in the city and reopen on ‘Labh Pancham.’ However, reopening of only 10 per cent of shops after Diwali points to anxiety prevailing in the market, mainly because of recession and upcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan.Devkishan Mangani, a textile trader, who is enjoying Diwali vacation in Maharashtra, said, “Majority of textile traders are outstation. They will return only by next Monday. There is recession also in the market as weavers are grappling with several problems. Many textile traders hail from Rajasthan, which will be going to the polls soon. They have gone to their hometown for the elections. There is no point for us to sit idle in the shops when there is no business.”Jaylal, director of Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association (FOSTTA), said, “Many textile traders are trying to get tickets for their candidates in Rajasthan. The textile traders who opened shops on Monday closed them by 3pm. The markets will function like this until next week.”Jaylal, who is also president of Radha Krishna Textile Market, said there is talk of recession in the textile markets. Many traders are unsure about it, but are scared of reopening their shops for some reasons. Thus, the roads leading to textile markets that generally have 10,000 passenger car unit (PCU) traffic density wore a deserted look in the city on Monday.

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