ELURU: Onion, which became a proverbial stick in the hands of Congress during the Delhi Assembly elections in 1999 to beat the then BJP Government with, is at it again. Now it appears to be the turn of the Congress to be at the receiving end.

The soaring prices of onion, which is the most essential ingredient of Indian cuisine, appears to have become a major campaign issue in the current municipal elections, given the tone and tenor of the electioneering in West Godavari district.

The opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) cadres are staging live demonstrations by displaying onions in Eluru and the other municipal towns in the district in their bid to give a telling effect to their campaign. The local issues, which ought to be the main election plank during the municipal elections, seem getting relegated to the background, thanks to onion.

"In the present elections, we are leaving no stone unturned in exposing the Congress Government's failure to regulate the onion market, causing much discomfiture to the consumers," says the TDP SC Cell convener, Varla Ramaiah, who is the incharge of the party's electioneering for Eluru Municipal Corporation.

Currently, a kg of onion is priced at Rs. 13 in Eluru and Rs. 12 in other parts of the district as against its normal price of Rs. 2 to 5. The spurt in the onion price is attributed to the extensive crop damage in Karnataka and Maharashtra in the recent flash floods.

To quote a Tadepalligudem-based wholesale trader, Nandyala Krishnamurthy, the daily arrivals to the local market used to be around 130 truckloads of onion from Karnataka and Maharashtra and 50 loads from Kurnool before the crop damage.

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