The Election Commission has reportedly allowed the government to present the Union Budget on a condition that the Finance Minister will not announce schemes specific to the five states that are going to the polls or highlight the government’s achievements there.
According to a report in The Indian Express, the decision by the Election Commission came late into Monday night. Elections to the five poll-bound states will take place between February 4 and March 8 with the results due to come on March 11. The Union Budget will be presented on February 1 so that the new provisions come into force from April 1, the beginning of the new fiscal.
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The Election Commission call also comes barely a week before the budget is due to be passed with the panel also reportedly advising the state governments to follow suit when they present their respective budgets and take a vote-on-account instead.
An NDTV report quotes the EC’s letter to the government, which is said to note that “In the interest of free and fair elections and in order to maintain level playing field... no state-specific schemes shall be announced which may have the effect of influencing the electors of the five poll going states in favour of the ruling parties.”
The Supreme Court on Monday had dismissed a PIL into the matter, saying that the Central Budget has “nothing to do with the states”.
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Opposition parties have been up in arms after the Centre proposed to present the Budget early this year with the BJP’s rivals saying that the announcement would have an effect on the poll-bound states. Political parties including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), Lalu Yadav’s RJD and the BSP had met the EC together and had even written to President Pranab Mukherjee to defer the budget.
