Onion prices may be key issue during assembly poll campaign
George Iype in New Delhi
Even as political leaders finalise their strategy for next month's assembly election, the shortage of onions and their exhorbitant prices have emerged as the main poll issue.
Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, which go to the polls, are among the highest onion-consuming regions in the country.
For the last month, there has been an acute shortage of onions all over the country. While onions in Delhi are currently sold at between Rs 50 to 70 per kilogram, the steep hike in onion prices in Rajasthan has forced the state Bharatiya Janata Party unit to demand urgent central intervention to tide over the crisis.
Though the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government promised many times to import onions these last four weeks, the first licence for importing 13,000 tonnes of onions was issued only on Friday.
Officials at the National Co-operative Agricultural Marketing Federation, which has been drafted to augment onion imports from Dubai, Holland and Iran said prices cannot be brought below the Rs 30 level if the government does not subsidise imports.
''There is a 20 per cent customs duty on onion imports Add to this the hefty transportation charges to Delhi and other north Indian cities from the ports. Therefore, the government cannot really bring down onion prices without heavily subsidising it,'' a NAFED official told Rediff On The NeT.
While it is certain the Vajpayee government will subsidise onion imports to supply the vegetable at reasonable prices to the people, the Congress party's poll hopes rest on onion prices remaining high for another month.
The party leadership believes it could easily ride to power in Delhi and Rajasthan and retain Madhya Pradesh because of the Vajpayee government's handling of the onion crisis.
''Onion prices have tripled in the past month. Ever since the Vajpayee government came to power, prices of all vegetables have steeply gone up. Therefore, it will be our biggest election issue in Delhi as well as in other states,'' Delhi Pradesh Congress committee president Shiela Dixit told Rediff On The NeT.
This, she said, is the first time an assembly election will be fought on the price of onions and other vegetables.
''No government deserves to remain in power if it is callous towards the people's basic needs like onions and potatoes,'' she added.
Rajasthan Congress Pradesh Committee president Ashok Gehlot declared that the BJP government in Rajasthan will be thrown out of power because it has done nothing to contain the price rise of essential commodities.
''It is the state government's duty to supply and distribute essential commodities to people at reasonable prices. But the government has been insensitive to the sufferings of the people,'' he said.
''Communal and caste violence and criminalisation of politics will not be the main poll plank during this election. Onions will be the main poll issue,'' Gehlot told Rediff On The NeT.
Both Dixit and Gehlot met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday to finalise her election campaign in Delhi and Rajasthan. They urged her to take up the prices of essential commodities as the Congress party's key poll issue.
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