Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot read the old budget by mistake while presenting this year’s budget in the Rajasthan Assembly on Friday.
Mr Gehlot read out excerpts from the previous budget, on urban employment and krishi budget, instead of Budget 2023-24. As soon as he made the first two announcements, which featured in Budget 2022-23, the Opposition rushed into the well of the House.
BJP leader and former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said that a Chief Minister coming to the Assembly without reading or checking the budget he is going to present shows how he is governing his state. “Such a state will definitely suffer,” she said.
“The Chief Minister kept reading the old budget for eight minutes. This is a historic first. I have also been the Chief Minister; I used to read the budget twice, even thrice, and checked everything before taking it in my hands. A Chief Minister who can bring such a big document into the house without checking it, and read the old budget, you can understand how secure the state is in his hands,” Ms Raje added.
Union Minister and Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat mocked the Chief Minister, saying he campaigned for a new budget but read out the old one.
“Gehlot ji remains very careless, campaigned for this year’s budget and started reading the old budget!
The public was thinking of a light of relief in the darkness spread by misrule, here the Chief Minister’s light went off.
Don’t know if we should laugh or cry!” he tweeted.
Speaker CP Joshi asked the opposition to maintain order, but the Opposition continued its uproar, leading to the House being adjourned. The Speaker asked the House to expunge the proceedings.
After the adjournment, BJP MLAs staged a sit-in inside the well of the House.
This will be the last budget of the present government as the state is going for assembly elections later this year.
