Abhishek Banerjee said on Saturday that the Union budget's focus was on poll-bound Bihar and accused the BJP of meting out a stepmotherly attitude to the people of Bengal.
"As Bihar will go to the elections in November this year, they have announced everything for Bihar. They always do everything keeping elections in mind. They never think about the interest of common people," the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress told reporters outside Parliament.
Later, on his social media handle, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew again threw down the gauntlet at the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of tabling a budget that was an election stunt.
"The NDA Government has once again laid bare its UTTER DISREGARD for the people with a Budget that reeks of POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM, not welfarism. This is not a people-centric budget- it is an ELECTION STUNT designed to bankroll BJP’s electoral machinery and appease its allies," the Diamond Harbour MP wrote.
In her 2025-26 Union budget, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of schemes, particularly for Bihar. The schemes included a new Makhana Board, which would improve the production, processing and marketing of makhana (fox nuts), a National Institute for Food Processing, a greenfield airport, and hefty central funds for the Western Koshi Canal Project.
In the earlier budget, the Centre had sanctioned sizable funds for Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. The JDU and the TDP which are in power in Bihar and Andhra, respectively, back the third Narendra Modi government.
While pointing out the huge funds and schemes allocated to Bihar, Abhishek drew a comparison with Bengal, which has been deprived of any exclusive schemes despite electing 12 BJP MPs.
"Even when Bengal elected 18 (BJP) MPs, they didn’t give anything to Bengal. Now, when the BJP has 12 MPs, they gave nothing to Bengal. These 12 Bengal BJP MPs will never protest against this deprivation. Bengal was deprived earlier and is again deprived today," said Abhishek.
"The message is loud and clear: the NDA Government does not care about the people – it only cares about POWER. This BANGLA-BIRODHI BUDGET is yet another reminder that for the BJP, Bengal exists only as a POLITICAL BATTLEGROUND, not as a state deserving of its RIGHTFUL DUES. The people of Bengal will not forget. The people of Bengal will not forgive," he wrote on X.
BJP leaders, who hailed the announcement of new income tax slabs and relief for the middle class following the tax rebate for individuals earning up to ₹12 lakh annually, claimed that the Bengal government kept fighting with the Centre and was busy with "aamra-ora (us and them)" politics.
"What will you do by giving the state new schemes when the state government is busy fighting with the Union government and refusing to implement central schemes? Despite being an Opposition (state) government, Odisha had received schemes in the earlier budget. I want to remind the ruling party leaders in Bengal that they should fight against the BJP during the elections, not make politics out of them and us," said BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar.
"You (state government) are not allowing a dwelling unit to a BJP worker and hope that the Centre will provide you with new schemes," he added.
BJP state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay conducted an elaborate news conference in Calcutta to hail the Union budget, particularly the relief on I-T.
CPM leaders said Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech in Parliament looked like that of Bihar's finance minister presenting the state budget.
"The budget did not focus on the interests of the country. It did not address education, employment, agriculture, railway safety, and other issues. It looked like Bihar’s finance minister was presenting the budget," said CPM state secretary Mohd Salim.
