New Delhi, Aug 9 - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday said the spiralling prices of essential commodities was due to the ruling UPA giving more importance to 'multinational companies, share holders and power brokers' than the aam admi.

The party plans to hold countrywide protest demonstrations against the price hike on Aug 17.

'Our economist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is looking at the society through the share market...The current price-rise is because of political reasons rather than the effects of nature,' BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told IANS.

Naqvi said the spiralling prices of basic commodities are the result of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) 'giving more importance to multinational companies, share holders and power brokers rather than the common man'.