New Delhi, Jun 15 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lashed out at Siddaramaiah government for increasing petrol and diesel prices by Rs 3 per litre in Karnataka and equated it with 'jizya', a tax imposed on the citizens during the Mughal era.

The party also hit out at the AAP government for hiking electricity tariff in Punjab for domestic as well as industrial users and said that the INDIA bloc governments are looting the common people after making the states 'bankrupt'.

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla took to X and accused the Congress of double standards on issues like price-rise.\

The Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government announced increase in the sales tax on petrol and diesel which came into immediate effect across the state.

The petrol retail sales tax has been hiked by 3.9 per cent from 29.84 per cent from 25.92 per cent.

The diesel retail sales tax has been increased by 4.1 per cent from 14.34 per cent to 18.44 per cent.

Lashing out at the grand old party, Poonawalla said that Congress complains of inflation and price rise and then raises prices of petrol and diesel the states where it is in power.

"Diesel prices have been raised by Rs 3.50 per litre while petrol by Rs 3 per litre. This is anti-farmer and anti-common man step," he wrote.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured that the excise duty on fuel was cut multiple times while gas cylinders were made cheaper but Congress is imposing jizya for its policies after bankrupting the state of Karnataka," he further stated.

Poonawalla further claimed that the state was paying the price of Congress' dangerous tactics as its treasury stands emptied now.

Notably, the Congress rode to power in Karnataka on the back of five guarantees, thereby entailing a whopping expense of roughly Rs 50,000-Rs 60,000 crore annually for its implementation. Karnataka CM recently held a series of review meetings to discuss ways to increase revenue collection.

Five poll guarantees promised by the Congress included -- free travel for women across the state, 200 units of free power, Rs 2,000 per month allowance for each female head of the family, Rs 10 kg of food grains to BPL families, Rs 3,000 per month for two years to unemployed graduates.