The Left parties began a week-long nationwide agitation on Tuesday itself while BJP has decided launch a nationwide protest from Wednesday.
NEW DELHI: The major Opposition party the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left parties are fuming over the recent hike in prices of petrol and diesel and decided to hit the street to protest the government's move .
The Left parties began a week-long nationwide agitation on Tuesday itself while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided launch a nationwide protest from Wednesday.
Thousands of protestors comprising women, youth and students held demonstrations, street meetings and dharnas in the national capital, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Amritsar and several places in Kolkata, Left leaders said.
The 'spontaneous' agitation against the increase in the prices of petrol by Rs 4 and diesel by Rs two per litre, will culminate in a National Protest Day on June 13, CPI Genenral Secretary A B Bardhan and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member M K Pandhe said.
''We are contacting non-Congress and non-BJP parties to join the country-wide protest day,'' they said, adding that the protests were also against the steep hike in the prices of essential commodities which were going beyond the reach of the middle classes.
Talking to newspersons in Chennai senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu said the party would organise a protest demonstration in Delhi on Wednesday, followed by Rail and road roko agitations for two hours throughout the country.
The hike, which would have a cascading effect and lead to increase in prices of essential commodities, was a betrayal of the UPA Government at the Centre, he said and flayed the Congress and the left parties for trying to hoodwink the people on the issue.
He also ridiculed the Congress for condemning the price hike and demanding its withdrawal, while being in power. "I am surprised over the reaction of the Congress. It is nothing but political one upmanship," he charged.
Meanwhile, AITUC general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta said the trade unions will also join the National Protest day. ''We have also chalked out a long drawn protest programme against the the anti-people economic policies of the UPA government, which includes a general strike in the middle of September,'' he added.
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