Unabated price rise, coupled with unending stories of venal acts at high places, has caused wide discontent across the nation.

The Congress, the principal constituent of the coalition government in New Delhi, has not escaped the opprobrium for all that has been happening.

It has reason to take alarm at reports streaming in concerning its prospects in the on-going polls in five states of the country, which are to be followed, in a short while, by general elections for the next Lok Sabha.

Publication of poll sample survey forecasts has been prohibited for the season by the Election Commission. That cannot, though, be much of a barrier to assessing the current mood of the electorate, particularly since inflationary forces persist with virulence. Read