Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and MPs, led by party president Nitin Gadkari and BJP Parliamentary Party chairman L K Advani, on Thursday marched to the Rashtrapati Bhawan and petitioned president Pratibha Patil for her immediate intervention to check the price rise and provide relief to the common man.

They also submitted a memorandum purportedly signed by 10 crore people in a nationwide signature drive.

While the Left parties held over an hour-long demonstration before the main entrance of the Parliament House to protest against the government not allowing a debate and voting on the price rise, the BJP leaders took out a  march after both the houses were adjourned without transacting business for the fourth day.

The BJP memorandum to the president conveyed a sense of outrage at unmitigated hardships faced by common people due to the “absolute failure” of the Congress-led UPA government to check the rise in prices of essential commodities of daily use.

Pointing out the “false promise” given by Congress in the 2009 elections to bring down prices of essential commodities in 100 days, the memorandum said the government was totally reckless and had no control as there was no vision or thinking to control the spiralling prices of commodities and the people have been left at the mercy of hoarders, speculation traders and market forces.

"It seems the motto of UPA has become 'Garibi Badhao'. Ever since the UPA has come to power, the number of people living below the poverty line has increased phenomenally," the memorandum said.

It said it was a tragedy that foodgrains worth Rs 50,000 crores were rotting and yet the poor and downtrodden were struggling for even one square meal a day. It also referred to the government hiking the petroleum prices thrice, varying from 33 to 46 percent, making the life of common man difficult.

The BJP memorandum also pointed out that India has entered an era of double digit inflation when the world is having one to three percent inflation. Debunking prime minister Manmohan Singh's logic that "if you want growth, you have to face inflation," the BJP memorandum said: "China, Brazil and Russia are the fastest growing economy in the world.  The GDP growth in China stood 9.5 percent and that of India is 7.2 percent but the inflation in China is less than 3 percent and food inflation is less than 1 percent, whereas in India the inflation is around 11 percent."

Pointing out that the essential commodities prices doubled in India compared to the world, the memorandum said along with wrong economic policies and taxing of common man through indirect taxes, speculation and manipulation in essential commodities at the commodity exchanges has played a major role in the food inflation.

While the centre keeps asking the states to curb price by taking steps under the Essential Commodities Act, it continues to encourage speculative, manipulative tendencies by pushing future and forward trading at these commodity exchanges, the memorandum alleged.