NEW DELHI/Hyderabad, Jan. 16: The Congress allies in the UPA, especially the DMK and the Trinamul Congress, could face the heat over the steep hike in petrol price ahead of the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
This hike has provided a major issue to the UPA adversaries — the Left and the AIADMK — in the upcoming electoral battle.
The public sector oil marketing companies raised petrol prices by `2.50 to `2.54 per litre from Saturday midnight citing a surge in international crude prices.
In Hyderabad, the cumulative effect, including 33 per cent VAT, had the price of petrol increasing by Rs 3 to `65.18. This is the sixth hike since April 1, 2010, when the petrol price was raised to `54.11 from `53.63. It was raised to `57.61 on July 4, `57.91 on September 20, `59.18 on November 2 and `62.18 on December 14. With Saturday’s hike, the price of petrol has gone up by `11.07 in nine months.
Opposition parties staged protests in different parts of the state against the hike and demanded its immediate rollback to ease the woes of the common man.
For the Trinamul Congress chief, Ms Mamata Banerjee, who is riding high on the anti-Left wave in West Bengal, the hike would certainly send out a wrong message to its political constituency in the state.
“Maybe, we are part of UPA which is in power. But we did not know (about the price hike),” said Ms Banerjee. She said Trinamul Congress workers would hold protest rallies at every block in the state.
The Trinamul’s formal protest on the hike may not help it politically as the party is not only sharing power with the Congress at the Centre but would fight the state Assembly polls in an alliance with the party.
The Left Front would put Ms Banerjee in the dock on the overall price rise and the increase in petrol price during the electoral battle.
The Trinamul Congress is distancing itself from the hike.