Mahila Congress workers stage a protest in Bhubaneswar on Saturday

KOLKATA/RANCHI/BENGALURU: Several opposition-governed states mounted a scathing attack on the Centre over the increase in LPG cylinder prices, with Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee asking women across the state to hold protests and her Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah calling for PM Modi’s resignation.In poll-bound Bengal, Mamata, focusing on her party’s women vote bank, weaved the issue of rising kitchen costs with SIR deletions.

She urged women across the state to mark Women’s Day by organising rallies in black outfits and armed with utensils to protest against the hike in LPG cylinder prices and largescale deletion of women’s names from the voters’ list. “Gas prices have been increased again and you can’t book a cylinder before 21 days. So what will you do for 21 days if you run out of cooking gas at home?” she said at a rally. Siddaramaiah said the hike was a result of “flawed foreign policy” of the Modi government. He said it would further strain millions of households at a time when families were battling relentless inflation. He accused the PM of surrendering India’s strategic autonomy “by aligning blindly with the US” and disrupting long-standing energy ties with Russia and Iran. In Jharkand, JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said, “Had India maintained its earlier ties with Russia, the country would not be facing such a situation.”