Amidst allegations and counter-allegations, the debate on price rise in parliament culminated on Thursday with the UPA winning the vote by 320 to 51.

On Wednesday, congress had agreed for a voting on price rise after the opposition BJP demanded for it.

The motion was moved yesterday by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee replying to the motion said, "inflation is high and I accept it should be around five per cent, but it is beyond our control". He called for a "political consensus" to address the problem of price rise. he also showed his helplessness in controlign the inflation by citing the rising crude oil prices.

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High inflation due to external factors: FM (PTI)

Attributing high prices to external factors, the government today said it is working to moderate food inflation to 5 per cent from over 8 per cent now without sacrificing growth.

Replying to a debate in Lok Sabha on price rise, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee gave details of various steps the government had taken to rein in inflation but did not outline any further strategy in this regard.

"Growth with moderate rate of inflation... that is what we want to achieve," Mukherjee said in nearly an hour-long reply which left NDA "disappointed" and was followed by a walk out by the BSP, SP, BJD, AIADMK and Left parties.

Through a division, the house negated the amendment moved by CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta which wanted a reference to the "failure" of the government to curb food price inflation.

Later, it adopted the motion by voice-vote.

Pointing out that the food inflation has come down from 22 per cent in February, 2010 to 8.3 per cent in July this year, he said, "I am not accepting it. This is not the bench mark."

Mukherjee said the comfortable level of food inflation is five per cent but six to seven per cent can be tolerated.

Responding to the demand for removing subsidy on diesel used by passenger cars, Mukherjee said, "We can accept the suggestion and try to work out what mechanism could be found out so that this section (passenger cars owners) are not subsidised." .