4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 1, 2026 05:29 PM IST
As the prices of commercial LPG cylinders were hiked by Rs 993 on Friday morning amid the global crisis, the Opposition, led by its leader in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, hit out at the government, calling it the “election bill” and alleging that while the first strike was on gas, the next one will be on petrol and diesel.
Opposition parties pointed out that the increase in gas prices comes just two days after polling in Assembly elections in five states, including West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam.
Gandhi said that he had already stated that “the heat of inflation would come after the elections”. “Today, a commercial gas cylinder is Rs 993 more expensive. The biggest increase in a single day. This is the election bill. From February till now: Rs 1,380 increase – a whopping 81 per cent jump in just 3 months,” said the Congress leader.
In a post on X, Gandhi added that from tea stalls to dhabas to hotels to bakeries to sweet shops, “the burden on everyone’s kitchen has increased”. “And this will affect your plate too. First strike on gas, next strike on petrol-diesel,” said Gandhi.
Congress general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal also reacted to the hike and said that “as the election cycle concluded, the Modi government wasted no time to increase prices of LPG cylinders”. “A whopping increase of nearly Rs 1000 on commercial cylinders will affect crores of Indians who rely on food from small eateries for sustenance. Similarly, crores of small food businesses will have to bear the burden of this hike,” said the Congress MP.
He added that the BJP’s “regard for the common Indian’s suffering is limited to election gimmicks, after which they’re left to their own devices”. “In the three months since the Iran war began, the government should have prepared a solid plan to shield ordinary Indians from the price shocks, instead of passing on the financial burden,” said Venugopal.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said that cylinders won’t get expensive, but the roti-thali will. “This is known only by the one who buys and eats it themselves, not by the one who goes and eats at others’ places or steals from others’ plates. If they had to make the cylinder expensive, they should have just made it 1000 rupees costlier outright. By reducing 7 rupees, who are these BJP folks doing a favour to?” he said in a post on X.
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The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister asked when the BJP will bring a “censure motion on “inflation, unemployment, joblessness, and recession”.
Trinamool Congress’s Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha Sagarika Ghose said that the Modi government “has again exposed its cynical anti-people mindset where the moment elections are over, it has hit the pocket of the small businesses”.
“When global oil was cheap, the benefit was never passed to consumers but petrol earnings used by the government to fund its insatiable cash gobbling election machine,” Ghose told The Indian Express.
“Now, when global prices are skyrocketing, citizens are bearing the brunt. Instead of misusing central forces and agencies in Bengal, the prime minister and home minister should be more worried about the massive oil shocks ahead due to the West Asia conflict,” she said.
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CPI leader in Rajya Sabha P Sandosh Kumar said that the “unprecedented” hike “is a direct consequence of Modi’s hug-lomatic foreign policy, which has failed to secure India’s national interest in a volatile global energy environment”. “Instead of ensuring stability in fuel supplies and prices, this approach has left the country exposed, and the burden is now being dumped on restaurants, dhabas, small eateries, hostels, PG accommodations and small establishments across the country,” Kumar told The Indian Express.
Kumar said that the “immediate fallout will be higher food costs and living expenses, hitting ordinary people the hardest”. “Coming just a day after voting, this vindicates what the CPI had warned: that LPG and other fuel prices would be hiked once elections were over, because the Modi government’s sole concern is electoral optics, not people’s welfare,” he added.
