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This is the BBC World Service.

And now, witness history with me, Reena Stanton Sharma.

On January the 7th, 1980, Indira Gandhi was voted into power in India in what would become known as the Onion Election.

At one rally, she went with a garland of onions and she held it up and she said, you know,

when I come to power, the price of this will go down.

That stood up high, a former professor of political science at Jawaharlal Nehri University in Delhi.

And she's talking about Indira Gandhi on the election trail in 1979.

Before her party, Congress I was voted into power.

She'd ruled India for 11 years until 1977.

But in 1975, she'd been accused of electoral malpractice which led to the so-called emergency when opposition leaders were jailed and the media were censored.

A rise in inflation and too much rain meant that the price of onions, which are used in pretty much every dish, was unaffordable for many Indians.

That just got this new job at the University.

Life was difficult for anybody at that stage.

And the price of onions contributed a great deal to what we were all facing.

During her campaign, which lasted around two months,

Indira Gandhi delivered up to 20 speeches a day during a 40,000 mile tour of almost 400 constituencies around India.

The 1980 election had many issues but food inflation was very high and price of onions had risen.

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