Angry UPA partners did some tightrope walking on the Centre's sudden announcement of a monstrous petrol price hike, but key Congress's alliance partner, Trinamool Congress, pulled no punches, calling the hike a result of "mismanagement of the economy". A somewhat muted DMK demanded an immediate roll-back. But Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, who on Tuesday shared the dais with the UPA leadership at the Prime Minister's dinner, sarcastically said that this was the government's gift to the people.