Maharashtra Congress sees chance in hike, inflation

The steep increase in railway fares has given the Maharashtra Congress an unexpected stimulus to shrug off the despondency that shrouded it since the Lok Sabha debacle.

The party has sprung into action with Mumbai Congress Chief Janardhan Chandurkar holding a meeting with party functionaries on Sunday to plan its strategy to counter the Central government decision. State party President Manikrao Thakrelater said Congress workers would hold protests starting Monday at Mumbai’s railway stations.

Considering that the Mumbai-Thane region has over 60 assembly seats of the 288 in the state, and almost the entire population in this belt uses local trains, the party feels it could use the fare hike to corner the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance. Now, these commuters will be paying twice to even thrice what they were spending on a threemonth ticket before.