Congress ministers arrive on bicycles to protest against rise in auto fuel prices
Ministers and legislators of the Congress arrived on the first day of the budget session at the state legislature on bicycles to protest against the rise in fuel prices. The party shares power with Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra. Ministers Balasaheb Thorat, Aslam Shaikh, Yashomati Thakur and Satej Patil, former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole and Mumbai Regional Congress Committee president Bhai Jagtap were among those who took part in the bicycle march. Patole accused the central government of mocking people and committing the ‘sin’ of snatching food from their mouths. “The state government has made the life of the common man difficult with the rise in petrol prices...the central government is mocking the people,” he alleged.
Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, however, passed the buck on to the state government, saying it can cut taxes and provide relief.
Already Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tijaswi Yadav in Bihar, opposition legislators in Madhya Pradesh and Robert Vadra in New Delhi had earlier taken bicycle rides against increasing prices of petrol and diesel.