Shehzad Poonawalla slams Samajwadi Party over ‘Lapata Gas’ remark, says ‘creating panic is their model’

Speaking to ANI, he said, “For them, LPG is lies, panic and goal post shifting. Finding commercial profit and political gains by creating panic of shortage is their model…Today, India has strategic reserves of crude oil. This is the reason fuel prices have not gone up in the last 3-4 years…”

On Saturday, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav took a jibe at the BJP-led Union government over the LPG issue, calling it “Lapata Gas.”Condemning India’s diplomatic actions in the West Asia conflict, Yadav said that the BJP wants to “mislead the public.”

“The people of Uttar Pradesh have given LPG a new name: ‘Lapata Gas’… If they had succeeded in convincing Iran and America at the time when war was about to happen, then neither would Iran have suffered so much damage nor so many lives lost… But these are strange people who squander every opportunity. They had painted the dream of Make in India… These people just want to mislead the public,” Yadav said.Meanwhile, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said there have been no reports of dry-outs of gas supply at LPG distributorships across India.

In a statement, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said that LPG bookings have shown a decline, with about 77 lakh bookings recorded yesterday compared to 88.8 lakh bookings on March 13, 2026.Several States and UTs, including Bihar, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan, have issued orders for allocation of non-domestic LPG in line with government guidelines.

The Ministry said that commercial LPG cylinders have been placed at the disposal of State Governments for priority distribution and are now available to consumers in 30 States and UTs.