M A I N   N E W S

Oil Price Hike
CWC meets tomorrow
Anita Katyal
Our Political Correspondent

New Delhi, May 29
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh deliberated with his senior Cabinet colleagues and Congress president Sonia Gandhi today to take a political call on hiking fuel prices, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is meeting here on Saturday to take the party into confidence on this issue as also to discuss its political debacle in Karnataka.

The CWC, the party’s highest decision-making body, will have a lot to introspect as the Congress finds itself in doldrums after it has lost as many as 11 Assembly elections (the latest being Karnataka) in over a year’s time.

As the head of the UPA government, the party has also been badly hit by the rising prices of essential commodities, one of the key reasons for the Congress’s poor performance in the Karnataka elections.

The Congress’s problems have been further compounded with the escalating crude prices in the international market. Finding themselves in the red, oil companies and the Petroleum Ministry have made a strong pitch for an increase in fuel prices.

While analysing the reasons for its defeat in the Karnataka elections, the Saturday’s CWC meeting is also expected to look ahead at the party’s preparedness for the next round of elections. The party may be taken into confidence about the severe oil crisis being faced by the government and the possible tough decisions it is being compelled to take so that it is able to explain these compulsions to the electorate.

Faced with a crisis-like situation, the Prime Minister has considered the various options the government has, to solve the fuel crisis. External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, finance minister P.Chidambaram, petroleum minister Murli Deora and planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia were at the meeting.

Another meeting this evening, which was also attended by the Congress president, followed this. The weekly union cabinet meeting was put off as the intense discussions continued till late into the night.

While there is all-round agreement that the government has no option but to go in for a fuel-price hike, the Congress will also be looking at the political ramifications of this “unpopular” decision so soon after its defeat in the Karnataka elections.

Already under pressure for the rising inflation, another fuel hike will further push up the prices of all food items, which could prove suicidal for the Congress, which has to face assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi this year-end. This will be followed by the Lok Sabha election ncxt year.