Even as they were expecting a partial rollback of the petrol and diesel prices following Monday’s hike, Left leaders contacted other political parties to join them in the June 13 all India protest against the petro price hike. They have got confirmations from the Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam, Rashtriya Lok Dal and Brindaban Goswami’s Asom Gana Parishad.Looking for ‘‘like-minded parties’’ to join them in the protest, Left leaders were approaching prospective third alternative partners to broadbase the campaign against the UPA. The Left parties are also trying to rope in UPA partners — the PMK and DMK — for the protest. But they are not sure whether the two would join in the protest even though the PMK has publicly opposed the petro price hike.CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, who had spoken to DMK chief M. Karunanidhi last week about the impending petro price hike, met the latter in the Capital today. The price hike issue came up during the meeting. Former prime minister V P Singh’s newly revived Jan Morcha is also likely to take part in the joint action.With trade unions already deciding to organise nationwide protests on June 13, the Left parties today decided to synchronise their protests with them. CPI leader D Raja said: ‘‘We want a rollback of the petrol and diesel price hike. We’ll wait and see how the government responds to our protests.’’ The first of the protests was held today here and both the CPM and the CPI took part in it.Meanwhile, there appeared to be little anxiety over the success of the protests in Kolkata given the experience of last year’s general strike on September 29 when Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee sought to take action against strikers who prevented IT workers from reaching their workplace.That sparked off protests from trade unions and was discussed by the party Politburo. On Tuesday, CITU president M K Pandhe said while wider issues pertaining to the IT sector were still being discussed by the party, there was unanimity on three counts: that IT workers had the right to form unions, they had a right to collective bargaining and could strike work.BJP’s two-hour weeklong agitation from todayNEW DELHI: The BJP would block road traffic for two hours — from 11 a.m. on Wednesday — in protest against the petrol price hike.Party spokesman Prakash Javadekar who announced the country-wide protest action said the agitation would continue for one full week. The BJP, according to him, would organise the road blockade at three points in the Capital.Javadekar termed the Congress opposition to the price hike a farce and said: ‘‘We want a complete rollback, not a partial withdrawal.’’ Charging the Left with duplicity, he said its rhetoric against petroleum price hike was only intended to hoodwink people.
