Persistently high inflation may pose a big challenge for the ruling Congress-led UPA government in the general elections next year, even some senior Congress leaders acknowledge.

With high prices of food and other articles affecting the common people, Congress suffered an embarrassing defeat in assembly elections in Delhi and three other states. The defeat forced Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi to refer to price rise as one of the factors for the party's defeat.

Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram acknowledged the role of inflation for the party's poor performance in the assembly elections, and said that there was no easy solution to tame food inflation.

Speaking on the topic, he said, "There is no easy solution to taming food inflation... I am afraid it will take some time to contain this inflation. We are paying a political price for that and I acknowledge that but those are the facts."

The wholesale price based inflation jumped to 7.52 per cent in November this year. It was its highest level in at least fourteen months. It was also much higher than the reserve Bank of India's March-end inflation projection of 5.5 per cent.

The retail price based inflation, which is measured by Consumer price index (CPI), remained in double digits for several months of the year. In November, it stood at 11.24 per cent.

Former RBI Governor D Subbarao had termed high inflation as `regressive tax' for the poor, and had suggested the government that it should hear those silent voices.