The supporters of Samajwadi Party (SP) on Wednesday hit the roads in protest against the Congress-led Central government's decision to hike petrol prices and misrule of Mayawati government.

The SP supporters held a series of protests throughout the day. They also blamed the BSP government for the hike in fuel prices. They said that the increased VAT on the essential consumer products by the BSP government has made every item costlier for the common masses.

The dharna which started from Shikshak Park in Naveen market ended after the protesters handed over a memorandum to ADM (city) Shailendra Singh. The memorandum was addressed to governor B L Joshi.

SP leader Surendra Mohan Agarwal said that if VAT is removed from petro products, the prices of petrol would come down to Rs 50 a litre.

"The Congress government in the Centre and the BSP government in the state are busy making the citizens of this country a fool," said Agarwal while addressing the party workers during the dharna. The protesters raised anti-Congress slogans and termed the Congress party as anti-common people party.

They said that during the last nine months, the petrol prices have been hiked nine times, which, they said, is a record in itself. A unit of SP supporters also devised a novel way to register their protest. They ferried a motorbike on a horse cart demonstrating that purchasing petrol was beyond the budget of common masses. They asked the commuters to pay them money so that they could buy petrol.

They said that a total of Rs 23 has been increased so far by the Central government in the last nine months.

The SP leaders also protested against the prevailing lawlessness in the city. They said that cases of rape, loot, murder were rising in the city and the BSP government was doing nothing to provide safety to the people.