Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) The countrywide opposition shutdown Monday, called by the Left parties and the NDA, against the fuel price hike is for the “first time in India’s history”, veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani said Sunday.
Advani, who is the BJP Parliamentary Board chairperson, said of the Bharat Bandh called by the National Democratic Alliance and Left parties on the same day, said: “As far as my memory goes, this is for the first time I am seeing so many of the political parties coming together calling a Bharat Bandh.”

He was speaking at a meeting here of senior leaders of the BJP-led NDA to chalk out a strategy for the Bharat Bandh.

The NDA in a statement said it will not tolerate the government’s “premeditated conspiracy” against the people of India.

“The NDA asserts that it will not tolerate this premeditated conspiracy against the people of India by an insensitive government and Congress party,” the NDA said in a statement released here.

Though the Left parties have called for a separate bandh on the same day the NDA said it was “heartened” to find that cutting across ideologies, opposition parties have come together to forcefully register their protest and demand roll back of the recent hikes.

At the meeting, it was decided to appoint senior NDA leaders to lead the protests in different cities. BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav will lead the protest in Delhi.

BJP leaders, including Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj will take charge in Bhopal, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and party vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will lead the protest in Lucknow. Former BJP president and senior leader Venkaiah Naidu will lead the stir in Hyderabad, BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar in Bengaluru and BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna.