Can rising fuel prices hurt the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha Polls? Nation@9

As fuel prices continue to soar touching record highs everyday and the Rupee plummets to its lowest level ever against the dollar. PM Modi called a high-level meeting of top Finance Ministry officials and key policymakers yesterday and today to review the country’s economic scenario. Even as the demand grows for an intervention from the Centre to rein in surging petrol and diesel prices which have been rising relentlessly for over a month now and needless to say hurting household budgets across the country. The Finance Ministry has so far ruled out any cut in taxes to ease the burden on consumers saying it does not have the bandwidth to lose any revenue without developmental spending being cut. The opposition led by the Congress has blamed the Centre’s economic policies for the current situation accusing the govt of utter failure on this front. The government for its part insists that it is global factors that are responsible for the skyrocketing fuel prices and the slide of the Rupee. Remember the Indian currency has fallen almost 6 percent since August to touch an all-time low of 72 this week. The Centre which is drawing a lot of flak for failing to provide any relief to consumers has been blaming rising international crude oil prices. The strengthening of the Dollar. The sanctions on Iran and the US-China trade wars. But what we’re now witnessing is a blame-game and buck-passing between the Centre and the states with both demanding that the other take remedial measures like slashing their taxes to lower fuel prices. What is staggering is this Half of the prices we are paying on fuel comprise central and state taxes. Ever since the BJP govt came to power in 2014 it has hiked excise duty on fuel as many as 9 times reducing it only once leading to excise collections from petroleum products more than doubling in the last 4 years. Fact is fuel is such a massive source of revenue for all govt's that nobody is willing to lower the taxes and so the blame game continues with the exception of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal that have cut taxes. So the question we’re asking is When will this blame game end and when will we see the govt actually do something concrete to ease the growing burden on the people of this country? Is it not time for fuel to be brought under the purview of the GST something that the Union Petroleum Minister has been promising for months? Also can the opposition get its act together and compel the govt to swing into action? And in an election year can rising fuel prices hurt the BJP?