Giving a jolt to the much-hyped grand alliance  (Mahaghatbandhan), Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati blamed both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the unbridled fuel price hike in the country.

“My party holds both the Congress and the BJP equally responsible for the rising fuel prices in the country,” said Mayawati. 

In a statement released in Lucknow on Tuesday, the BSP chief said that the Modi government was also pursuing ‘anti-people policies’ like the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II pursued, after which it was thrown out of power by voters. “While people are suffering due to the obstreperous price rise, the BJP leaders are diffident, akin to the UPA- II leaders, in replying to questions on economic issues. People are fed up with the dispensation and are sure to teach the BJP a lesson in the coming Parliament elections,” she said. 

The former UP Chief Minister termed the NDA’s oil policy as irrational and impractical. “Fuel prices have spun out of control but the Modi government does not want to upset its industrialist friends. The Union government was doing virtually nothing to control rising prices of petrol and diesel. It is indeed surprising how the Union government on Tuesday expressed its helplessness in harnessing rocketing fuel prices,” the BSP chief said

Mayawati reiterated that both the Congress and the BJP had failed in tackling price rise and the Modi government did not any sympathy for the middle class and the poor. “If the Union government wants then fuel prices could be controlled,” the BSP leader said.