Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented the Union Budget for the financial year 2024-25. While the budget largely featured sops for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United)-governed Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, it was interesting to see what the BJP-led NDA had to offer for other poll-bound states such as Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Maharashtra was not mentioned in the Union Budget 2024-25 presented by FM Sitharaman.
The Mahayuti alliance, comprising Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, BJP, and Ajit Pawar's faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), aims to maintain its grip on power in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections.
However, a perceived neglect of Maharashtra in the Union Budget 2024-25 could potentially bolster the electoral prospects of the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) coalition. Led by Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar's NCP, and the Congress, the MVA hopes to capitalise on any discontent among voters arising from the budgetary allocations.
"After denying a special status to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, they have given them funds. Maharashtra continues to be ignored by the Centre. It has become a state where you keep taking in money from," Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi jibbed at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government.
Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned Jharkhand once in her speech as part of a holistic developmental project in Eastern India. Jharkhand is ruled by the INDIA bloc party Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), led by Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
“The states in the Eastern part of the country are rich in endowments and have strong cultural traditions. We will formulate a plan, Purvodaya, for the all-round development of the eastern region of the country covering Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. This will cover human resource development, infrastructure, and generation of economic opportunities to make the region an engine to attain Viksit Bharat,” FM Sitharaman said.
Ahead of the upcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Territory has been allocated ₹42,277 crore in the Union Budget. Currently, under direct central government control, the funding aims to support infrastructure projects, welfare programmes, and economic initiatives crucial for the socio-economic growth of Jammu and Kashmir as it prepares for electoral processes.
Like Maharashtra, the poll-bound BJP-governed Haryana was also ignored in the Union Budget 2024-25.
The Union Budget 2024-25 prominently prioritises allocations to Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, reflecting the strategic coalition dynamics of the BJP-led NDA.
The TDP, led by Chandrababu Naidu and contributing 16 MPs, and the Janata Dal (United) under Nitish Kumar, with 12 MPs, are influential within the 293-MP NDA coalition governing at the Centre.
Sitharaman spoke of financial aid to Bihar, “We will support the development of an industrial nod at Gaya in Bihar. It will catalyse the development of the eastern region. We will also support the development of road connectivity projects- Patna-Purnea expressway, Buxar- Bhagalpur highway, Bodhgaya- Rajgir-Vaishali- Darbhanga and an additional two-lane bridge over river Ganga in Buxar for ₹26,000 crore.”
Efforts have been made to fulfil the commitments in Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, the FM says. “Recognising the state's need for capital, we will facilitate special financial support through multilateral agencies. In the current FY, ₹15,000 crore will be arranged with additional amounts in future years,” she said. The ₹15,000-crore financial assistance has been allocated for projects including the development of Amravati as Andhra capital.
