Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led a 'padayatra' in Siliguri on Sunday to protest against the steep hike in the price of LPG cylinders.

Accompanied by thousands of supporters, Banerjee set off on the protest march from Darjeeling More around 2 pm.

Many were seen holding red-coloured cardboard replicas of LPG cylinders at the 'yatra', which was led by the TMC supremo, and joined by her ministerial colleague Chandrima Bhattacharya, and party MPs Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan.

"Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are the only syndicate in India. Covid pandemic happened, fuel prices rose but the prime minister is nowhere to be found. You get free rice but to cook it you spend on gas," Mamata said at the rally.

Launching a fresh tirade against Modi, she said he was "peddling lies to mislead the voters" in the poll-bound state.

The chief minister , addressing a rally following her protest march , said the prime minister made many "empty" promises over the years, and people no longer trust him.

She sought to know "why the PM has not yet deposited Rs 15 lakh in the bank accounts of every citizen, as promised by him before 2014 Lok Sabha polls".

"You have made many empty promises. People will not accept your falsehood every day. We demand you make LPG cylinder affordable to every citizen of the country. You have made LPG cylinders inaccessible for the common man," Banerjee said in her address.

The CM also said that Modi should be "ashamed of his habit of telling lies".

"He gives speech in Bangla, but the script in always written in Gujarati, and kept under a transparent sheet of glass before him. He just pretends that he knows Bangla well," she said.

"Your party had vandalised Vidyasagar's bust. Your party dishonoured Birsa Munda. Your party wrongly said Rabindranath Tagore was born in Santiniketan. This shows your depth of knowledge about Bengal and its culture," she said.

Asking people to raise their voice against the "riot- mongering BJP," Mamata said, "People of Bengal, who had been living in peace casting aside barriers of community and language, would come under grave threat if a divisive force such as the saffron party comes to power in the state."

Earlier in the day, the PM, during his mega rally in Calcutta, accused Mamata of "betraying and insulting" the people of the state who trusted that she will bring about a change after the Left rule.

"Bengal chose you in role of 'Didi' (elder sister) but you preferred being 'bua' (aunt) to your 'bhatija' (nephew Abhishek Banerjee)," he said.