Lucknow, May 26 (IANS): Days after hobnobbing with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) leadership over the third anniversary dinner, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has called for Uttar Pradesh shutdown on May 31 to protest the petrol price hike.

The Samajwadi Party chief also gave the party functionaries directive to hold state-wide protests after he held a meeting with district presidents and general secretaries of the party here Friday.

Asking his party workers to fan out across the state and inform the people of the party's stand on the price hike, Yadav said the party has taken the steep hike in petrol prices very seriously and would oppose it tooth and nail.

By asking cadres to take up a centre-specific issue, Yadav has also signalled to the party workers to begin work for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The SP chief said the state government's work would be reviewed, and, if necessary, course corrections would be done.

"This is a party for workers and the people. I have told the ministers to be alive to the aspirations of the baseline of the party and then act," he told the gathering of party functionaries.