New Delhi, June 28
Rattled by the public outcry over soaring prices of essential commodities, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has convened a meeting of the party’s working committee tomorrow to discuss this specific issue and evolve a strategy to bring relief to the common man.
The meeting of the Congress working committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, comes at a time when there is growing unease in the party over the spurt in prices of items like wheat, pulses and vegetables, which has undermined its “aam admi” plank.
The meeting also comes a day ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Vidharbha region in Maharasthra, where he is expected to announce a financial package for farmers of states, which have witnessed increasing suicides by farmers.
Although the government has taken several measures to check the price line, the Congress leadership has been inundated with complaints from its state units about growing anger among people at the price hike. Congress cadres are particularly worried since their party had positioned itself as a “pro-poor” party as opposed to the NDA.
This issue was raised last week by Karnataka state leaders when they met the Prime Minister in Bangalore. Dr Singh, on his part, explained the reasons which compelled the government to raise the prices of petrol and diesel and the steps being initiated to check the prices of wheat, pulses and sugar.
Several senior party leaders had even written to Mrs Gandhi requesting her to call a CWC meeting on this issue.
Mrs Gandhi while addressing party workers in Jaipur two days ago was forced to dwell at length on this issue.
