Claiming to be “unhappy, dissatisfied and surprised” at the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs to hike the price of diesel by Rs. 5 and restrict the number of cylinders of cooking gas to six per household per year, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said here on Thursday that the party would have to now consider whether to continue supporting the Congress-led government at the Centre.
However, Ms. Banerjee, who had in a previous occasion threatened to pull out of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government if there are any further hikes in the fuel prices, was quick to point out that “if I withdraw support to the Centre other parties will fill in.”
“When I had withdrawn support from the government in the past [from the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre], I had been misunderstood by the people,” she said.
In a telephonic interview to Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh to a private television channel of which he is the chief executive officer (CEO), Ms. Banerjee said that she would take to the streets here on Saturday demanding an immediate rollback of the hike in prices. Her party had not been consulted on the matter even though it was in the ruling coalition.
Ms. Banerjee said that she would have taken to the streets on Friday itself, but had decided to defer the protests till Saturday in view of the civic reception to be given in honour of President Pranab Mukherjee, who is visiting the city
.
