So, a day after the middle class in the national capital voted overwhelmingly for the AAP or so the poll analysis suggests comes the jolt.
They will have to fork out for LPG or cooking gas the steepest price hike since January 4, 2014.
Twitterati fulminated over the hike, announced a day after the results of the New Delhi assembly election, and some were quick to draw a connection between the two events.
@VinayDokania pointed out, “As soon the election is over, the Modi government shocks the common man with a hike in LPG prices.
The only current the BJP has managed to transmit, has been directed straight into the pockets of the middle class. This is clearly a government of vendetta and incompetence”.
@sumanthraman wondered how LPG prices could have risen so sharply when global gas prices had not spiked and, in fact, were falling. @madhavmantri felt the common man was being put to the test by the government.
“First, the government asked people to give up the LPG subsidy and then it kept on increasing the prices. Those who gave up the subsidy have been betrayed.”
The brunt will be borne by Delhi and Mumbai – both ruled by non-BJP dispensations; the hike in the two cities will be Rs 144.5 and Rs 145 per cylinder, respectively, according to the IOC which, supplies LPG under the brand Indane.
So, with effect from February 12, the non-subsidised LPG rates stand revised to Rs 858.5 per cylinder in Delhi and Rs 829.5 per cylinder in Mumbai. Incidentally, this is the sixth consecutive upwards revision.
Usually, any changes in LPG rates are effected by suppliers at the beginning of a month. In Kolkata and Chennai, the non-subsidised LPG prices have been increased by Rs 149 per cylinder to Rs 896.00 per cylinder and by Rs 147 per cylinder to Rs 881.00 per cylinder, respectively.
For the record, the price of LPG (per 14.2 kilograms) has been increased by a cumulative Rs. 284 per cylinder in Delhi and Rs. 283 per cylinder in Mumbai so far since August - an increase of 49.43 per cent and 51.78 per cent, respectively.
An irate @Partibha_Singh shared the outraged tweet by then BJP leader Smriti Irani over the Rs 50 hike in LPG price in June 2011 and a picture of the event, saying: 50 rupee hike in LPG!!!!! N they call themselves Aam Aadmi ki Sarkar.
What a shame!” @YadavSamaj2 exhorted Irani to rise to the occasion this time also. “Ma'am go for it once again. We all need you. LPG price hiked by Rs. 144.5.”