Chief minister and Trinamul Congress Mamata Banerjee will hit the street on Saturday to protest the petrol price hike and to press for her demand for a rollback. Ms Banerjee will lead a roadshow from Jadavpur to Hazra in the evening. Impo-rtant Central and state ministers, including Mukul Roy, Sudip Bandopadhyay, Sultan Ahmed, Firhad Hakim, Javed Khan et al are expected to accompany her.
“Didi wants to keep the heat on the UPA so that she could extract at least a partial rollback which we could later project as our victory,” a Trinamul Congress MP considered close to Ms Banerjee said.
This will be the second Trinamul Congress protest rally over the petrol price hike issue. On Thursday, the Trinamul Congress organised a protest rally from Hazra to Mayo Road which was led by the railway minister.
“Didi wants to send the message to the people that she is not a party to the UPA’s anti-people decision although she is the second largest constituent of the coalition government,” the MP added.
Announcing the DMK’s protest plans, the party said in a release that it would stage peaceful demonstrations in front of the central government offices and district collectorates at all district headquarters in Tamil Nadu.
“The DMK cannot remain ignorant of people’s issues” though it is a UPA constituent,” party supremo and former chief minister M. Karunanidhi said in Chennai.