Bhubaneswar, May 15: A sharp hike in the price of petrol has triggered an angry reaction from various political parties of the state.

Along with the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), members of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have also protested against the hike in petrol price today by burning effigies of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Reacting to the unexpectedly high rise in petrol price, the students’ wing of the BJD also hit the streets and organised protest rallies near the Raj Mahal Square today.

Shouting anti-UPA slogans, they burnt the effigies of the two leaders.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik said: “This (price rise) is going to be another blow to the common man. The BJD will certainly agitate in this regard.”

Terming it as a betrayal by the UPA government towards the people of lower and middle class families, the BJD youth wing today announced a number of programmes to oppose the decision to hike the price of petrol.

BJD youth wing president Sanjay Dasburma said: “We will organise a cycle rally on Monday where thousands would join the protest. Later, we would handover a memorandum, addressed to the President of India, to the governor. Rallies would also be organised simultaneously in Sambalpur and Berhampur. On May 17, there would be another agitation in Cuttack, Rourkela and Jeypore.”

Expressing his concern for the common people, general secretary of the BJD youth wing Bijay Nayak cited facts related to hikes in the price of petrol.

“Petroleum price has been hiked 19 times since 2004 and nine times during the last nine months. The party will intensify its agitation against the UPA government,” said Nayak.

The opposition parties also staged protests. BJP state unit president Jual Oram condemned the price hike as “anti-people”.

“The petrol price hike will lead to a further increase in the prices of essential commodities, which is highly unfortunate. This has exposed the real face of the Congress, which pays lip service to aam aadmi,” said Oram.

CPI(M) state secretary Janardan Pati said their party would also organise protest programmes across the state.

“The move to hike the price of petrol is a well-calculated move of the UPA government. They had waited for the elections to be over in the five states. Now as the elections are over, the UPA government has hiked the price ignoring interests of the common man,” he said.