Kannauj may see perfume politics in 2019 Lok Sabha elections

‘Perfume Politics’ could be the flavour of a high-pitched battle for the Kannauj seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, as chief minister Yogi Adityanath has decided to take forward there a dream project of predecessor Akhilesh Yadav, who has declared his intention to fight the election from that constituency.
An 100-acre ‘Ittra Park & Sangrahalya’ (Perfume Park & Museum) will come up at Kannauj, the perfume capital of India, with the Adityanath government deciding to hire a project management consultant to draw out the contours of the project within three months.

A majority of Kannauj’s population is dependent on the indigenous perfume industry and Yadav had announced the project as part of a major poll plank. But it has been lying ignored for the past one year after the BJP came to power.

Yadav’s wife, Dimple, is the sitting MP from Kannauj, but the former CM has decided to contest from there next year.

As per a plan document prepared by the UP government, a new brand of perfume having a “point of difference” will be launched and marketed by the UP government in India and abroad. The idea is to promote the perfume industry in the region and create jobs. Kannauj has a 5,000-year-old perfume industry that uses indigenous techniques. “The project envisages development of a special perfume manufacturing zone with modern distillation and extraction units,” says a plan document reviewed by ET.

According to the document, the raw material (flowers) for the perfumes made in Kannauj comes from places from Andhra Pradesh and the coastal areas of Odisha to Jammu & Kashmir. Also, the local industry sources spices and herbs from the Northeast.

Besides perfumes derived from single flower fragrance, a large number of perfumes are made indigenously in Kannauj by blending fragrances of different flowers, herbs and spices through a water distillation process that will be done through modern machines at the ‘Perfume Park’. Yadav, in his tenure as the CM, had visited Grasse in France, the perfume capital of the world where modern machines are used. The new consultant will now give a report on standardisation of manufacturing process and development of new products as per demand in both local and global markets.