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Nothing for West Bengal in budget: TMC leaders

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NEW DELHI, July 23: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders on Tuesday said the budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha has nothing for West Bengal and called it a budget for the ruling NDA and not for India.

The MPs of the Mamata Banerjee-led party also staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha opposing the budget.

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Senior TMC leader Kalyan Banerjee called it a “kursi bachao budget (budget to save the chair)”.

“This budget is aimed at saving (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi’s position. It is a budget for the NDA, not for India,” he said.

“Last time they gave so many projects to Odisha. Now they (BJP) have won (the Assembly polls in the state), so there is nothing for Odisha. There is also nothing for Bengal,” Kalyan Banerjee told reporters outside Parliament.

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said West Bengal has been deprived of funds.

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“You have seen how West Bengal has been constantly deprived by this BJP government. Has there been a positive outcome of 12 BJP MPs who are elected from West Bengal? No. The net result is zero because West Bengal has been constantly tortured and deprived,” he told reporters here.

“What (Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly) Suvendu Adhikari said a few days ago — ‘jo humare sath, hum unke sath’ — has been proved today. Just to save their government, they have allocated special packages to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. We do not have any problem with any state getting any allocation, but why should West Bengal be deprived?” the Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal’s Diamond Harbour told reporters outside Parliament.

He said he will speak on the budget in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, adding that the people of West Bengal will give a “befitting reply” to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) again.

TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose spoke on similar lines and said they staged a walkout from the Upper House of Parliament in protest.

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“This is a failed budget. It is to bribe two of the alliance partners — Bihar and Andhra Pradesh — not a Union Budget. This budget is bribing coalition partners before this government implodes,” she told reporters outside Parliament.

“We in the TMC have protested against this anti-Bengal budget. The TMC walked out of the Rajya Sabha. This is anti-federal. You cannot sacrifice the federal spirit at the alter of politics. It is ethically repugnant, constitutionally immoral and economically ruinous,” Ghose said.

Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale alleged that there is an “open and shameless” discrimination against West Bengal in the budget.

“Open and shameless discrimination yet again in this Union Budget. Union Govt excludes only Bengal from flood relief and reconstruction funds,” he said in a post on X.

“Giving funds to other states while intentionally ignoring and singling out the people of Bengal is yet another revenge for BJP’s pathetic performance in elections,” Gokhale added.

“West Bengal contributes significant revenues to the Union but faces pathetic targeting and exclusion yet again in the Union Budget,” the TMC leader said.

Another Rajya Sabha MP of the party, Sushmita Dev, said central funds amounting to Rs 1.6 lakh crore are due to West Bengal and questioned how the budget exercise was being carried out without the census being held.

“You are calling the budget historic, but he is a king who does not know what the population is. There has been no census since 2011. If you do not know the exact numbers, how are you going to make the budget?” she asked. (PTI)

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