"You the economic Prime Minister, cannot manage the economy, cannot manage India. Please quit," BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad told reporters in New Delhi.

He claimed that inflation had reached new heights during Manmohan Singh's tenure as finance minister in the P V Narasimha Rao-led government. The situation is similar when he is the Prime Minister, Prasad said.

"Today the inflation has increased further to reach 8.24 per cent. On March 31, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had promised that recent measures taken by the government would show results in two weeks. But now it has been eight weeks and sufferings of the common man have grown by the day," Prasad said.

Even a bumper harvest has failed to improve the situation. "Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that we have had a bumper crop of 2.1 lakh tonnes. This has not brought any relief."