Budget 2024-25: Call to look eastward in line with BJP’s agenda to up LS seat tally

Keeping an eye on the approaching parliamentary elections, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the interim budget for the 2024-25 fiscal on Thursday (February 1) laid special emphasis on developing eastern India, asserting that the region be the driving force of India’s growth.

Focus on East

“Our government will pay utmost attention to make the eastern region and its people a powerful driver of India’s growth,” Sitharaman said, asserting that the Union government stands ready to assist the eastern states in faster development of aspirational districts and blocks, including generation of ample economic opportunities.

The finance minister, however, did not specify any special package or policies to supplement her call for the region’s economic growth.

BJP’s new catchment area

The selective mention of the region for “utmost attention” is in line with the BJP’s poll strategy that has earmarked the eastern region as its new “catchment area.”

The 12 eastern and northeastern states account for 142 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP won 68 of these seats in 2019, which is 47.48 per cent.

The party set a target of winning 100 of these 142 seats at a meeting of party leaders from east and northeast held in Guwahati in July last year. The meeting was presided over by BJP’s national general secretary BL Santosh.

The BJP-led NDA in 2019 won 17 of the Northeast’s 25 Lok Sabha seats; 18 of West Bengal’s 42 seats; 17 of Bihar's 40 seats; seven of Odisha's 21 seats and 12 of Jharkhand's 14 seats.

Bengal's grievances against Centre

Coincidentally, the finance minister’s claim comes a day ahead of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s scheduled dharna at the Red Road in Kolkata.

"I have given an ultimatum till February 1 to the Centre to clear all dues of the state, failing which I will stage a dharna from February 2,” Banerjee announced on Wednesday (January 31).

The day also witnessed a spat between BJP and the Trinamool Congress over non-release of funds for various central schemes in West Bengal.

The TMC claims the state’s dues amount to a whopping Rs 7,000 crore for several central schemes, including MGNREGA and PM Gramin Awas Yojana (PMGAY).

Leader of the TMC in the Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, on Wednesday raised the issue of “non-payment of funds” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament. In response, the prime minister asked him to read the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report first before raising the issue.

State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar later claimed that the CAG had found that the state government had not provided “utilisation certificate for Rs 3,400 crore appropriated from the contingency fund”.

Budget Centre’s Easter push?

The TMC, however, dismissed the claim stating that the Centre is depriving Bengal of its rightful dues.

“The Centre is forcing us (the TMC) to launch a fresh satya graha,” Bandyopadhyay said.

Terming the finance minister’s so-called Easter push as “nonsense,” TMC Rajya Sabha MP Jawahar Sircar told The Federal that for the fiscal deficit to reach 5.8 per cent, at least “₹15 lakh has to be borrowed from the market to make up”.

Chief Minister Banerjee, however, is yet to react to the budget.