Mumbai, Feb 15 (IANS): The Congress' Mumbai unit will stage agitations at 21 suburban railway stations on Thursday to highlight the increasing prices of petrol and diesel and inflation which has hit the common masses hard, a top party official said.

The agitations will be led by Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) President Sanjay Nirupam, with party's municipal corporators, former and sitting legislators, parliamentarians and former ministers.

"Despite downward trends in global crude oil prices, the rates of petrol and diesel just are not being reduced in India. In Mumbai, for instance, petrol now stands at around Rs 81 per litre, the highest in the country, which has hit the common citizens hard," Nirupam told IANS.

Besides the high oil prices, he said that general inflationary trends with spiralling prices of all essentials including eatables, had made life miserable for the ordinary citizens, especially the middle and lower-middle-classes and the working class, he pointed out.

In order to highlight the plight of the masses, the city Congress will protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the first time at all major suburban railway stations on Western Railway, Central Railway and its Harbour Line.

"Until now, protests were usually carried out at the termini like Churchgate, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or Dadar, but this time we shall raise the voice of millions of commuters from across Mumbai who are also the common people of the city and the worst sufferers of this inflation under the BJP," Nirupam said.

Some of the stations to be included in the protests are Borivali, Malad, Andheri, Santacruz, Bandra, Dadar on both CR and WR, Mumbai Central, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Sion, Matunga, Vikhroli, and several others covering all the six Lok Sabha constituencies of Mumbai, which are currently represented by BJP or Shiv Sena MPs.

If the government fails to heed the voice of the people, the agitation shall be intensified in the next phase soon, he added.