The soaring prices of vegetables, including onions, will likely not come down till the med of October, wholesale dealer believe.

According to fresh inflation data, prices of all vegetables have made huge jumps this year, grinding down the budgets of households. Onion prices have jumped by a whopping 245 per cent year-on-year over the past few months.

Mahinder Khurana, a wholesale dealer of vegetables at Jagriti Agro, said, "The onions are the most expensive and even in the wholesale market they are being sold at Rs. 60-70 per kg. The prices will continue to remain so till Oct
15."

Another wholesaler, Ram Dhan, predicted that higher demand during the festivals would not allow prices to come down till Diwali - the festival of lights.

Vegetable prices have played crucial roles in elections in the past. In 1980, Congress won national elections after it made higher onion prices a campaign issue; while in 1998, the BJP suffered defeat in the national capital, when prices soared to all-time just a month before the elections.

The dealers blamed the combination of low arrivals of vegetables and shortage of stocks for the sky-rocketing prices.