NEW DELHI: The soaring onion prices in the national capital was at the centre of a political slugfest on Friday, with top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and MPs Vijay Goel and Meenakshi Lekhi staging a protest against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The demonstration was staged near Ajmeri Gate. The protesters, led by the BJP heavyweights, demanded that the Delhi government bring down onion prices instead of “indulging in politics over the issue”.
Responding to the AAP’s charge that the Centre wasn’t doing enough to ensure supply of the kitchen staple at subsidised rates in the national capital, the BJP leaders laid the blame for the price spiral on the Arvind Kejriwal government.
Goel said at a time when Delhiites are struggling for clean air and water, the chief minister is also “not letting them eat”.
The chief minister was quoted as saying earlier that the Centre had stopped supply of onions to the city at controlled rates at a time when the retail price of the bulb has touched Rs 100 per kg.
On November 23, Goel said that the Centre had sought to know the Delhi government’s requirement of onions. “But the government didn’t respond and is indulging in cheap politics instead,” he said on Friday.
In most parts of the city, the bulb has been selling at between Rs 80 and Rs 100 per kg.
On Thursday, Food and Civil Supplies minister Imran Hussain wrote to Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, seeking his intervention in ensuring steady supply of onions from NAFED. With barely months to the Assembly elections, the issue now threatens to become a full-blown political slugfest.
(With PTI inputs)