Mamata to hit the road against petrol price hike Saturday

Kolkata, May 25 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will lead a procession of the party activists and supporters in the city Saturday to mount pressure on the central government to roll back the petrol price hike.

Banerjee will walk a distance of seven km from Jadavpur to Hazra Crossing in south Kolkata around 5 p.m., Trinamool sources said.

Her decision to hit the road is being interpreted in political circles as an effort to force the central government to announce a partial rollback and not to concede any political space to her arch rival, the Left Front, which is also taking out protest rallies on the issue across the state starting Saturday.

Trinamool Congress, the second-largest partner in the ruling United Progressive Alliance, had taken out a large procession Thursday to demand the withdrawal of the hike.

The procession was led by Railway Minister Mukul Roy.