Poking fun at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the rising onion prices, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said "mehengi dayan" was now akin to "bhaujai" for the saffron party. He said while onion prices has hit a "century", the potato rates have scored a "half century". Yadav also sought to remind the BJP of the times when the party protested against the soaring prices wearing onion garlands.
"Onion prices have hit a century while potato prices have hit half-a-century. These very people of the BJP used to wear onion garlands and sing 'mehengai dayan khaye jaat hai'. Now when onion price is Rs 100 per kg, mehengai dayan has become 'bhaujai' for them," the Mahagathbandhan chief ministerial candidate said at a public rally in Saharsa on Thursday.
Onion prices have soared for the last few weeks due to tight supplies following damage to this year's kharif crop in the wake of heavy rainfall in the key growing states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. In Bengaluru, the politically-sensitive commodity remained costliest in the retail markets at Rs 100 per kg despite Karnataka being the third-largest producer of the kitchen staple in the country. On Monday, the average all-India price of onion was ruling as high as Rs 70/kg. The retail price of the commodity in Mumbai was a hefty Rs 77/kg despite Maharashtra being the top onion producing state in the country. In Delhi, the retail prices were firm at Rs 65 per kg, in Kolkata at Rs 70 per kg and Chennai at Rs 72 per kg.
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The government has taken measures, including banning exports and imposition of stock limits on traders, to boost the domestic supply and keep the prices under check till the arrival of fresh crop by end of this month. The government is also increasing domestic availability by releasing buffer stock of onion as well as relaxing norms for imports via private trade till December. Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka are the top three onion growing states in India.
The price rise issue has often been used by the Grand Alliance in their rallies in Bihar. Meanwhile, Tejashwi Yadav has been aggressively trying to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor against the Nitish Kumar government. The 31-year-old is seeking re-election from Raghopur in Vaishali district which he had wrested back for his party from the BJP’s Satish Kumar in 2015. The BJP leader had defeated Yadav’s mother Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, in 2010. He went on to become the deputy to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whom he would call chacha (uncle) then, an expression of respect and alliance. But the alliance fell apart in 2017, and now Tejashwi is challenging his chacha for the top post.
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