‘Election gift’, ‘gimmick’: Opposition’s jibe at Centre over slashed LPG price

In a long post, he said: “For 9 and a half years, by selling ₹ 400 #LPG cylinders for ₹ 1100, they kept destroying the life of the common man, then why didn’t any “affectionate gift” come to mind?The BJP government should know that after torturing 140 crore Indians for 9 and a half years, handing over “electoral lollipops” will not work. Your sins of a decade will not be washed away…”

Kharge also pointed out that “to counter the backbreaking inflation implemented by the BJP”, the Congress party has decided to make the cylinders available to the poor in many states for Rs 500 only. “Many states, such as Rajasthan, have already implemented this,” he wrote.

He added that the Modi government should know that in 2024 elections, the anger of the troubled people of the country cannot be alleviated by Rs 200 subsidy.

“Fear of INDIA is good, Modi ji! The public has made up its mind. The only option is to show BJP the exit door to beat inflation.”

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee attributed the LPG price cut to the ‘power of INDIA’ alliance.

“Till now, only TWO meetings have been held in the past TWO months by the INDIA alliance and today, we see that LPG prices have gone down by Rs. 200. Ye hai INDIA ka dum (This is the power of INDIA),” she wrote on X.

Senior CPIM leader Sitaram Yechury termed the move to slash LPG prices “an electoral gimmick” by the Central government as “Modi is scared of the results”.

He remarked: “If Modi govt stopped collecting cess/surcharges on petroleum products (which is not shared with States) then a cylinder (also petrol/ diesel) should cost much less even without any subsidy.”

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh questioned the timing of the move and said the story is all about the “chair”. “A sudden slash in LPG prices by Mr. Modi. Why now, you may ask?  Yeh hai kissa demokursi ka. Karnataka rout of the BJP— the high price of LPG was one of the main issues of the election,” he said.

With the BJP is staring at certain defeat in the upcoming Assembly polls in five states against Congress’ welfare schemes, one can expect more such gifts, Ramesh said.

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