With diesel price hike coming under attack from friends and foes alike, Congress today said it was also not happy with it but saw it as an inevitable step and ruled out pressing for a rollback.

"We are ourselves not happy, they will be naturally unhappy as well. We will try to convince them", was the refrain of party spokesman P C Chacko to protests by allies like Trinamool Congress and DMK.

Facing a host of questions at the AICC briefing, Chacko gave no hint of any rollback of the hike but felt that the reduction of taxes on diesel both by the Centre and states should be considered.

His refrain was that the government had to reluctantly" go in for the "unpleasant decision" in the wake of the spiralling international prices of crude, fall in rupee and the whopping losses to oil PSUs.

Stoutly rejecting suggestions that the protests by allies like Trinamool Congress and DMK was a "drama", he said that he does not believe that anyone protesting the hike was doing it for a drama as "there is a real situation".

"In fact, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had herself told the government that if it can be avoided, please avoid it," he said but also made it clear that the the party will not ask for a rollback though there is demand from many states as the government is really in a "very very tight situation".

He said if anyone has not been consulted, they will be taken into confidence and explained the reasons behind the hike, he said when asked to comment on TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's remarks that her party was not consulted.

"In coalition government, partners may not be unanimous on many issues," he said.

The Congress spokesperson said that the government and the party will explain to the people the reason for the step, when he asked if the party had given up the 'Aam aadmi' plank and whether the government was going against the wishes of the party.

"We are hoping for a situation where we can reduce the price as international price of crude comes down," Chacko said adding that the decision was taken with the oil PSUs having under recoveries to the tune of Rs 1.87 lakh crores due to the rising prices.

Asked why allies are not on board on the diesel pricing even as there is a coordination committee of the UPA to forge consensus among constituents on key issues, the Congress spokesperson said the committee's meeting is not called to discuss every issue.

On the decision to restrict the supply of subsidised LPG cylinders to six for each household, Chacko said that it was a decision taken by a Parliamentary Committee having members from various political parties sometime back which was being kept pending for a long time.

He also claimed that 44 per cent of the consumers actually consume only six LPG cylinders a year.

Chacko also said that the government "sacrificed" its income through various taxes and did increase the petrol prices while recommendations for a hike in diesel prices were pending for a long time.

He also cited coalition constraints in going full steam with economic reforms saying "in a coalition arrangement, we cannot go as far as we do in a single party government (for bringing reforms)".