West Bengal's ruling Left Front called on Wednesday for a 12-hour state-wide bandh on Thursday to protest against the hike in the prices of petroleum products. "We are asking the people of the state to respond to the bandh call to protest against the anti-people measure of the UPA government," Left Front chairman and state CPI-M secretary Biman Bose told reporters.

He said the bandh would begin from 0600 hours on Thursday and would be preceded by a state-wide protest and rallies this evening.

Bose said that he had discussed with the leaders of the Left Front constituents before arriving at a decision in this regard.

Terming the price hike "anti-people", he said it would further increase prices of essential commodities and push the inflation to 10 per cent as it would have a cascading effect raising the transportation cost.

He said that different forms of protests had been called by the Left parties all over the country to oppose the latest hike in the prices of the petroleum products.