At least four Chief Ministers from the Opposition camp have decided to boycott the upcoming meeting of NITI Aayog to protest what they call a ‘discriminatory’ Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament on July 23.
Three of these Chief Ministers are from the Congress party – Revanth Reddy (Telangana), Siddaramaiah (Karnataka) and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh). Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK leader MK Stalin is the fourth.
“The Union Budget presented today was extremely discriminatory and dangerous, which completely goes against the principles of federalism and fairness that the Union Government must follow. In protest, INC CMs will be boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said in a post on X.
Earlier Stalin had in a press conference announced he would not attend the meeting. The NITI Aayog meeting scheduled on July 27 will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We don’t feel Kannadigas are heard, and hence there is no point in attending the NITI Aayog meeting,” Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said, adding that the Budget 2024 has neglected his state’s demands. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not look beyond Andhra Pradesh and Bihar in the Budget, in order to protect his government, the opposition leaders said.
Sitharaman presented her record seventh consecutive Union Budget 2024-25 today in the Parliament on Tuesday. The FM introduced increased standard deduction and revised tax rates for salaried individuals under the new tax regime. Besides this, a cut in customs duty on gold, silver, mobile phones and other goods were also announced.
The Finance Minister announced significant financial aid for Andhra Pradesh and major infrastructure projects for Bihar. Andhra Pradesh is governed by N Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United is in power. The TDP and the JD-U are allies of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.
Speaking at the press conference, Stalin said that the Union government boycotted Tamil Nadu in the Budget 2024.
The Opposition has decided to protest against the discriminatory budget during the ongoing session of Parliament. INDIA bloc Members of Parliament (MPs) will protest in front of the Parliament House before the beginning of House proceedings today, July 24.
