In this Indiaspend article, Rithika Kumar considers an intriguing observation about the rising onion prices and the Bihar elections.

"The price of onions, staple in most Indian households, has increased from Rs 1,325 per quintal (national average) in January to over Rs 3,300 per quintal today. This translates to a greater than 150% increase over the last few months, with expectations of a further rise in prices. There have been many explanations for this price rise...But there seems a whole other curious coincidence to rising onion prices–they seem to match every Bihar election cycle...

Earlier this year, the price of onions stood at Rs 1,488/ quintal. Today, six months later, there has been an over 142% increase to Rs 3,603/quintal in Patna with a major proportion of that increase occurring over the last two months with expectations of a further price rise in the next two months...Probing further we observed similar trends in 2005 and 2010 before the Bihar assembly elections that were held in October in both years. In both years, nodal wholesale onion prices at Patna steadily rose over the six months leading up to the elections, by 230% and 177% in 2005 and 2010 respectively."

Read the full article here.