Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, who is the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, on Wednesday lashed out at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the Union Budget tabled a day ago.
He claimed that plates of all states except Bihar and Andhra Pradesh empty in budget allocation. Kharge said barring states ruled by NDA allies, several major states including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Kharge said he expected Karnataka to get the most but the state received nothing. He reiterated his Budget day claims that the Centre is trying to please BJP's allies in the NDA, inclduing Nitish Kumar-led JDU and Chandrababu Naidu-led Andhra Pradesh, to "protect the chair".
When Jagdeep Dhankar told Kharge to let Sitharaman respond, Congress chief took a swipe at the finance minister, saying, "Mataji is an expert in speaking. I am aware of that".
In her response, Sitharaman called the allegations "outrageous". "You don't get an opportunity to name a state in evey budget. For example, let me take Maharashtra, which was not named at all between interim and full budget. The Cabinet passes a very important decision to set up a major port in the state. Did Maharashtra get ignored because I didn't name it? Rs 76,000 crore has been allocated for that project."
She went on to say that the opposition parties are deliberately trying to give the people a wrong impression that their states haven't received anything.
