Ahead monsoon session of Parliament, Congress fields senior leaders to hold press conferences on inflation

By Siddharth Sharma
New Delhi [India], July 12 : Ahead of the Parliament session, senior leaders of Congress will hold a series of press conferences to target the Central government on inflation.
For the next four days, in the capital of almost all the states, senior Congress leaders will hold press conferences on the increase in prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and food items.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram will hold a press conference in New Delhi, ex Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath in Lucknow, Rajya MP Digvijaya Singh in Shimla, Subodh Kant Sahai in Raipur, Sachin Pilot in Dehradun and Deepender Hooda in Hyderabad.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel will hold a press conference in Nagpur whereas Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge will address the presser on Monday in Mumbai.
It is also worth noting that the leaders of 'G23', a group of disgruntled seniors inside the Congress, are also being sent to hold press conferences across the country. Anand Sharma will hold a press conference in Jaipur, Shashi Tharoor in Chennai and Manish Tewari in Ahmedabad.
Apart from this, Ajay Maken will go to Bhopal to address the press conference, Salman Khurshid in Ranchi while Pawan Khera in Chandigarh.
Earlier on Sunday, Rajya Sabha MP Shakti Singh Gohil targeted the central government in the press conference in Guwahati.
AICC secretary in charge of Communication department Pranav Jha told ANI that senior leaders of Congress will hold press conferences in every capital and raise the issue of price rise of petrol, diesel, kitchen, food items. He said that Congress is continuously protesting on the streets on the issue of inflation.
"According to the government data, two crore people have lost their jobs across the country and the income of 20 crore people has decreased by up to Rs 10,000 per month. Inflation is at the highest level since 2012. In press conferences, we will talk about the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG during the time of the UPA government and the current situation. We will also answer the false allegation of BJP leaders that the government is not able to reduce oil prices due to oil bond interest," said Jha.
Pranav Jha said that the oil bond interest is Rs 7,000 crores annually while the government earns Rs 4.53 lakh crores.
Amidst the sluggish pace of the economy, petrol has crossed Rs 100 in most states across the country and diesel is close to Rs 100. The prices of essential food items have also increased.
Sonia Gandhi had earlier called a high-level meeting over the issue, after which Congress workers are seen protesting continuously against inflation.
For the monsoon session of Parliament beginning July 19, the Congress party is making a strategy to corner the Modi government on the issue of inflation.