Budget 2024: Rahul Gandhi slams govt, says it is 'Kursi Bachao Budget'

Rahul Gandhi. File Pic/PTI

Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday dubbed the Union Budget 2024 a "kursi bachao budget" and claimed it makes "hollow promises" to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allies at the cost of other states.

Rahul Gandhi also claimed that the budget was "copy and paste" job of the Congress manifesto for 2024 polls and previous budgets.

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In a post on X, Gandhi said, " 'Kursi Bachao' Budget. Appease Allies: Hollow promises to them at the cost of other states. Appease Cronies: Benefits to AA with no relief for the common Indian. Copy and Paste: Congress manifesto and previous budgets."

The Congress also slammed the Union Budget as being "more focused on posturing than action" and claimed that the "copy-paste government" has borrowed heavily from the party's manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls.

The opposition party in its post claimed that the government had "tacitly" admitted that "mass unemployment is a national crisis", and said the budget has "political compulsions written all over it".

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget for 2024-25, her seventh straight presentation, surpassing the record of former prime minister Morarji Desai. This is the first budget in Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's third term in office.

Mamata Banerjee dubs budget politically biased

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday dubbed the Union Budget 2024-25 as "politically biased and anti-poor" and slammed the Centre for "depriving" the state, reported the PTI.

The chief minister wondered what wrong West Bengal committed that it had been "deprived" by the Centre.

"Bengal has been completely deprived in this Union budget. This doesn't look into the interest of the poor. The budget is politically biased. This is directionless and has no vision. It is only to serve a political mission," she told reporters on the state assembly premises.

Earlier in the day, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union budget for the 2024-25 financial year.

(with PTI inputs)