Thursday, June 8 2006 17:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hyderabad: Toughening its stand on the hike in prices of petrol and diesel, the CPI-M today (June 8, 2006) demanded a complete rollback and said that it would be observing June 13 as 'National Protest Day' along with four other regional parties.

"The Central Committee has discussed a resolution on petrol price hike and strongly opposed it. We want a total rollback," the party Central Committee member Neelotpal Basu told reporters on the first day of the three day meet.

When reminded that the Prime Minister is understood to have firmly ruled out any rollback, Basu said, "We are not talking about what the government feels or says. When a popular movement builds up against the decision the government has to budge and agree to what people say is right."

"CPI-M and other Left Parties would be joined by Telugu Desam, Assam Gana Parishad, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya LokDal on June 13 during the nation wide strike," he said.

"Our coming together is limited only to the point of launching a joint fight against the policies of the Centre," Basu said, adding that he did not see any chances of revival of a Third Front.

He described the 'joint struggle' as a move to build popular resistance and increase the cooperation between parties sharing the common view on 'anti-people' decisions of the UPA government.