Though many women are staying away from onions due to Navratri and Durga Puja, the same cannot be said for most of the male residents. Bishen Das (73), owner of a newspaper-cum-magazine stand, is just one of them.

He is certain that onions will prove to be the undoing of Sahib Singh Verma and his BJP government. ``Onions will be the death of the BJP government. What will the poor eat? Every house has an unemployed youth to feed. Years ago, the first Congress government in Delhi lost power in the same way''.

Businesswoman Lata Sachdev says that even ``higher class'' people like her are feeling the pinch. ``How will the poor survive?'' she says condescendingly, but goes on to acknowledge that life is difficult in Delhi. ``It's bad for us as well. My household budget has tripled in the last three months. Now you can't get onions even if you are ready to pay a premium price. This is really unfair!''

Shopkeepers and halwais in the Shalimar Bagh main market are convinced that they are the ones who are suffering the most. ``First the oil crisis and now the onion problem. Customers who have been buying our products right from the beginning doubt our products today. Is it our fault? We are caught between corrupt hoarders and the government's regulations,'' says P. Gupta, owner of Bangla's Pastry.

Gupta has lost faith in all political parties and he thinks Delhi is beyond redemption. ``Though our power and water situation has improved since Sahib Singh became chief minister, other problems have cropped up. We voted for the BJP because they promised to undo the wrongs done by the Congress. But once in power everybody behaves in the same way.''

A cross-section of the constituency, however, is quite undecided about who to vote for. ``It all depends on the candidate. If Sahib Singh stays, we may vote for him. But if the Congress puts up a strong candidate, we might consider that option,'' says another resident Prakash Yadav.

The youth, it seems, will stick with the BJP, come what may. ``This government has done a lot for us. The Congress did not do all this in their 40 years of corrupt rule,'' says 26-year-old LPG dealer Pankaj Jain.

As for the price rise, he thinks that it is Delhi's increasing population that is to blame. ``Delhi would be a better place if it had less people. We should stop people from other parts, especially Bangladesh, from coming to this city. They are the cause of our problems''.