New Delhi, March 2 (IANS) Normal life in Kerala and Tripura was hit by shutdowns Tuesday over the fuel price hike in the union budget, while opposition legislators in Andhra Pradesh in a novel protest rode bicycles and bullock carts to the state assembly.
While opposition MPs are planning to raise a storm when parliament reconvenes Wednesday after a four-day Holi break, two constituents of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government — Trinamool Congress and DMK, who too have opposed the hike — are planning to meet the Congress leadership.

Top Congress leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party president Sonia Gandhi, met here in a Congress core committee meeting Tuesday over the issue.

In Andhra Pradesh, it was a joint protest by legislators of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) over the increase in petrol and diesel prices.

Led by Leader of Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu, they came to the state assembly riding bicycles and bullock carts.

“The hike in fuel prices has burdened the common man. We are demanding that the central government immediately rolls back the hike,” Naidu told newsmen. The TDP chief rode both a bullock cart and a bicycle on his way to the legislature building.

He said the fuel price hike announced in the union budget Feb 26 would add to the misery of the common man who was already reeling under the impact of the rising prices of essential commodities.

The lone legislator of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), G. Kishan Reddy, pushed his motorcycle to reach the assembly.

Kerala woke up to a strike called by the workers of the Motor Vehicle Coordination Committee of the Left parties and the BJP. The shutdown was supported by trade associations as businessmen downed the shutters of their shops.

Only private vehicles plied on the roads and people were left stranded at railway stations. Attendances in government offices were low. The state education department and the state public service commission postponed all examinations for the day.

Tripura too was badly affected, with the frontal organisations of the state’s ruling CPI-M enforcing a one-day vehicular strike.

“When common people are already facing the severe heat of price rise of essential commodities, the UPA government put a fresh burden by increasing the duty on petroleum products,” Pijush Nag, Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) leader, told reporters.

The CPI-M’s youth wing Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) has been organising rallies across Tripura protesting the “deprivation of the northeastern region in the central budget”.

The fuel price hike has not gone down well with the UPA’s two influential constituents - the DMK and the Trinamool Congress.

“The Congress leadership and the finance minister have already announced that the issue of fuel price hike would be discussed with us and we would be convinced. Let us see what they are going to discuss,” DMK leader T.R. Baalu told IANS.

Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay from Kolkata said, “We will meet and discuss. We are going to Delhi.”

DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, seeking a rollback of the price hike.

Reacting to the allies’ demand, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the issue would be discussed with them and they would be “convinced”.

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