Jalgaon:
With the government surrounded in a political fire fight over the recent hike in petrol prices, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) head Sharad Pawar has backed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on deregulation on fuel prices.
"What PM said was right, those who understand economics will agree," said Mr Pawar. Dr Singh had said that deregulation of fuel prices should go on.
State-owned oil companies had, on Friday, increased the price of petrol by Rs. 1.82 per litre, the second raise in less than two months.
Mr Pawar also said that the NCP is with the UPA, even as Mamata Banerjee warned the Centre of withdrawing support over the fuel price hike and the manner in which it was introduced.
With the Prime Minister firmly backing the rise in petrol prices, a worried Congress - already reeling under attacks over rising prices and a slew of scams - has rung the alarm bell. The Congress feels that the Prime Minister's pitch for letting market forces dictate fuel prices - as part of the continuing reforms process - is not doing any good to the party.
The government is also trying to make the allies see reason over the latest hike. Its logic - if oil companies don't recover losses from an increase in petrol price, the pressure to raise prices of politically-sensitive fuels like diesel, cooking gas and kerosene would mount. This seems to have somewhat tempered the allies' anger.
"We still feel that the government should try, even though it was inevitable", DMK spokesperson T K S Elangovan had said.
But a softening of stance by the allies may not be enough for a government that is staring at a stormy Winter Session in Parliament. The latest fuel price hike will only provide further ammunition to a belligerent Opposition trying to corner the Centre over the twin issues of inflation and corruption.