West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday nearly fell while driving an electric scooter in Howrah. As a mark of protest against the fuel price hike, she was travelling to Kalighat from State Secretariat in Nabanna. However, she quickly regained her balance with support and continued to drive. 


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Earlier, in a unique protest against the fuel price hike, CM Banerjee rode pillion on an electric scooter to state secretariat Nabanna. CM Banerjee was seen sitting behind state minister Firhad Hakim, who rode the battery-powered electric scooter. With a placard protesting against the petrol price hike hanging around her neck, helmet-clad Banerjee waved at people on both sides of the road during the seven-km-long journey from Hazra More to the state secretariat.


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After reaching Nabanna following a 45-minute ride, Banerjee slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre saying, "We are protesting against the fuel price hike. The Modi government only makes false promises. They have done nothing to bring down fuel prices. You can see the difference in petrol prices when the Modi government came to power and now."


She said the TMC will launch a stir against fuel price rise from Friday. "The BJP had promised free LPG connections to the people before coming to power and now they are hiking its price," Banerjee said. "Modi and Shah are selling the country. They are selling the profit-making PSUs. This is an anti-people, anti-woman, anti-youth, anti-farmer government," she said.


The feisty TMC chief also criticised the BJP government for renaming the Sardar Patel Stadium, popularly known as the Motera stadium, in Ahmedabad after Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The way they are changing the names of stadiums, who knows they might change the name of the country in the coming days," she quipped.


Speaking on her unique protest, Banerjee said, "I rode on an e-scooter to protest the manner in which petrol, diesel and LPG prices are rising. "A middle-class household needs two LPG cylinders a month which they can't afford now. Over 1 crore people in our state also depend on kerosene which they are not getting now," she said. Banerjee said she will return home in the evening on the e-scooter.


The chief minister was trailed by security personnel on other two-wheelers as other vehicles followed her a little distance away. There was tight security along the Hazra-Exide-AJC Bose Road-Vidyasagar Setu route. The opposition parties, however, called her protest an "election stunt". "The CM is resorting to novel theatrics ahead of the elections but the state government is not doing its bit to reduce fuel prices," BJP leader Jai Prakash Majumder said.


Congress Legislature Party leader Abdul Mannan said, "This is nothing but an election stunt. Why is the state government not substantially withdrawing cess to blunt the effect of the fuel price hike to help the common man?" Left Front leader Sujan Chakraborty compared her fuel hike protest with her earlier riding pillion on a motorcycle ridden by former PCAPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato during the Lalgarh agitation.


"Banerjee had ridden pillion on Chhatradhar Mahato's motorcycle in the Jangalmahal region before coming to power in the state but later people of that region witnessed the TMC's intimidation and terror," he said. The TMC supremo had earlier several times ridden pillion on two-wheelers.