‘After Karnataka elections, all hell breaks loose’: Reactions on petrol, diesel price hike

Consumers and politicians from opposition parties took to Twitter to lambast the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre over the latest fuel price hike.

New Delhi, May 14: On Monday, the hashtag--#Petrol--was trending on the micro-blogging site, Twitter, following the hike in fuel prices. The prices of petrol and diesel were hiked just two days after the Karnataka Assembly elections on Saturday got over. The results of the elections will be declared on Tuesday.

The last fuel price hike was announced on April 24. According to reports, the Centre was waiting for the Karnataka Assembly elections to get over to further increase the prices of petrol and diesel.

While petrol price was hiked by 17 paise a litre, diesel by 21 paise as PSU oil firms began passing on the spike witnessed in international rates to consumers. Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 74.80 per litre from Rs 74.63, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 66.14 a litre from Rs 65.93, according to a price notification issued by state-owned oil marketing companies.

Consumers and politicians from opposition parties took to Twitter to lambast the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre over the latest fuel price hike.

"Like a Jumla for campaigning, all will be quiet till polling day in Karnataka. After that, all hell will break loose on poor citizens with a hefty price hike. #Petrol #Diesel," wrote Sitaram Yechury, secretary general of the Communist Party of India, on Twitter.

Another user of Twitter raised the issue of 19-day hiatus by the Centre before the fuel prices were hiked. "India know why #Petrol #Diesel price was unchanged for 19 days. Yet, when it comes to complaint of frequent price rise, @narendramodi ji & @dpradhanbjp ji keep telling us that it is deregulated & govt has no role. Oh... Plz don't fool," wrote @bimalpandia on Twitter.

Tehseen Poonawalla of the Congress said, "On the 12th itself I told @RubikaLiyaquat on @ZeeNews that #Petrol prices will be increased post the #KarnatakaElections2018 . Proved correct 😊."

However, the supporters of the BJP stated that consumers should not complain about the increase in fuel prices as they spend more on buying a "bottle of beer".

"One beer bottle costs around 100rs--no problem (even if it is Increased we can able to buy it ). One litre petrol costs around 75rs--- big problem( If Increased 10paise)," wrote a Twitter user.

Similarly, another Twitter user said that people spend far greater amount of money in buying mobile phones than on petrol and diesel and still remain quite.

"No problems in buying 10000-20000 rupees mobile phones. Can even take loan to buy it. But if petrol rates increases just few Paisa they started crying. What's this???? This is for all the govt," wrote another Twitter user.