Describing Congress as the "mother of inflation", Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today charged the UPA with deliberately creating conditions conducive for price rise of essential commodities.

Addressing various rallies at villages Dasu Jodha, Mithri, Chormar and Odhan for INLD candidate Ajay Chautala, the SAD president said "whenever Congress was in power, price rise of essential commodities is a 'natural by-product' of its rule".

He said with "deliberate and delayed import" of pulses and Union Government's alleged failure to maintain a buffer stock, dal had become a dream dish for 80 per cent of the country's population.