The humble onion had felled the bjp government in Delhi last time around. This time it was the four Congress-ruled states going to the polls who were aflutter. Onion prices spurted in early October as poor rains in Maharashtra delayed the early kharif crop in Nasik’s Lasalgaon, the onion bowl of the country. Wholesale prices went up one-and-a-half times to nearly Rs 1,300 per quintal. Traders even started hoarding produce. But matters are stabilising now. The Lasalgaon crop is in, prices are stabilising across the country, with indications that they’ll continue to drop. In the capital, retail prices were down from Rs 17 to Rs 14 per kg over the last week. Wholesale prices have dropped to a more respectable Rs 830 a quintal.
