Onion cry loudest ahead of polls

The ruling Congress has a familiar enemy as it goes to polls on February 21 — onion and garlic that have become prize commodities after prices skyrocketed to Rs 30 a kg and Rs 120 a kg respectively.

The ruling Congress has a familiar enemy as it goes to polls on February 21 — onion and garlic that have become prize commodities after prices skyrocketed to Rs 30 a kg and Rs 120 a kg respectively. And the Opposition is not new to laying down price rise as a trusted poll plank.

The Congress had launched an attack on the BJP on the same issue in the last Delhi Assembly elections and it is just getting a taste of its own medicine.

“People are fed up with inflation during Congress rule and want change. Sonia’s letters to the Prime Minister on the matter are nothing but attempts to fool the common man,” said BJP president Rajnath Singh

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The BJP has placed advertisements in local newspapers, drawing up a comparison of prices of onion and garlic during the NDA regime and the current UPA government. “Inflation is something which affects every voter and we think it will be a deciding factor in these elections,” said Maj Gen Bhuwan Chand Khanduri (retd), former Union minister and in-charge of BJP campaign committee. He said spiralling inflation and the exorbitant prices of onion and garlic would make the people vote the BJP back to power.

The Congress is readying its defence. “Inflation is a national issue which affects the entire country. Voters in Uttarakhand are aware of this and local issues would be more crucial in this election,” said Congress chief spokesperson Surender Kumar. A former minister in the ND Tiwari government and a sitting Congress MLA from Bageshwar, Ram Prasad Tamta, is promising lehsun (garlic) and not bhashan (lecture) to voters at his poll rallies.