Allies join oppn against diesel price deregulation

Key UPA allies Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday joined the BJP and Left in opposing the government's in-principle decision to deregulate diesel price.

Key UPA allies Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday joined the BJP and Left in opposing the government's in-principle decision to deregulate diesel price.

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At its working panel meeting, the NCP also decided to hold a rally at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on May 16 on this and other issues concerning farmers.

The government had on Tuesday announced that it has agreed in principle to deregulation, but was not considering similar proposal for cooking gas.

Trinamool leader Sudip Bandopadhyay also made it clear that his party was against deregulation of diesel prices and warned of protests if the policy is implemented.

But he later told HT that his party had not received any indication so far that the government was going to decontrol the diesel prices.

Sources said three senior Congress leaders assured the Trinamool leadership that there would not be any "immediate move" in this regard. The Trinamool leadership was confident that it would not be implemented, at least till the presidential elections.

The announcement had evoked sharp reactions from the BJP. "We oppose such a move because diesel is a basic fuel for all types of transport and any increase will have a cascading effect on price rise," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

"We will tell them. Government will listen to our views," he said, adding his party was of the view that the prices of fertilisers, power and diesel should not be increased.