In a major embarrassment for the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday alleged that the Chief Minister read out the Budget for the last year while presenting the state’s budget for this year in the Assembly today.
The Chief Minister, who also holds the Finance portfolio, began to read the previous Budget for the year 2022-23 as he stood up to address the House. He was well into the third or fourth paragraph of his speech when he was interrupted by his cabinet colleagues.
The faux pas by Ashok Gehlot led to massive protests by BJP legislators who stormed into the Well of the House, leading to a 30-minute adjournment. According to The Indian Express, the protesting MLAs staged a sit-in after the House was adjourned.
“Unprecedented! A Chief Minister is so clueless he can’t make the difference between last year and current year’s budget. Not just law and order, even Rajasthan’s finances stand in danger under the Congress and Ashok Gehlot,” Union minister Bhupender Yadav said on Twitter.
All eyes are on the Rajasthan Budget 2023-24, the last Budget by the Gehlot government before the Assembly elections scheduled to be held in the state towards the end of this year.
Big-ticket schemes were the Indira Gandhi Shehri Rozgar Guarantee Yojana for urban areas, implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for those appointed after January 1, 2004 and an increase of man-days under MGNREGS from 100 to 125 days were part of the prominent measures announced by the Gehlot government in the Budget last year.