GUWAHATI: Price rise is likely to be a major poll issue in Assam. In almost all middle-class households, this is a common complaint. As successive governments have failed to address unemployment, the next best thing the people seem to be hoping for is a government that can arrest this rise.
For homemaker Bobita Thakuria (55), the “unusual surge” in the prices of pulses and mustard oil is unimaginable. Her husband Hemanta Baruah runs a retail shop, and the income from that feeds the family of four. She prepares the household budget and says that a 95% hike in prices of the most used kitchen commodities will compel even “apolitical homemakers” to think politically while voting.