Erstwhile PCC president and former minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah today slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the latter's comments against the preceding Congress-led union governments.
Modi had allegedly said that his predecessors at the Centre (meaning the Congress) would prepare budgets only to secure electoral gains in any elections following the budget release.
Reacting to this, Lakshmaiah lashed out at the PM, and condemned the comments saying, "The remarks made by the PM against the preceding Congress regimes are unfounded. It is unfortunate then that he has made such comments. Where the Congress worked for the people and ensured that India became a powerful global presence, the Modi government is the one using the Union Budget to get votes. Unlike the Congress, it even constantly tries to get votes based on caste and religion."
Lakshmaiah further alleged that this year's budget had announced sops worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore to states like Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal and Kerala to gain popularity ahead of the upcoming elections in the four states.
The former minister also questioned the PM on a promise he had made to Bihar before the 2019 elections - he reminded the latter that he had promised to give to Bihar a Rs 5 lakh crore package before the last general elections, and asked whether the package had indeed been given yet.
He then asked Modi if the Centre had fulfilled all the promises made to Andhra Pradesh in the AP reorganisation Act (2014), and also flayed the PM for allegedly having failed to keep his promise of giving Rs 15 lakh to every citizen of the country, and of generating two crore jobs.
The Congress has been assailing the Centre for various "failings" recently. Lashing out at it for
"harassing" the farers of the country, TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy even accused it of misleading the nation on the issue of the new agricultural laws and on the continuance of the MSP system. Several Congress leaders also condemned the Union Budget 0f 2021-22. Notably, Mohammed Ali Shabbir called out the union government for the
meagre funds allocated for minority welfare in the budget this year.