HD Kumaraswamy's budget hits Siddaramaiah wall

Bengaluru: Is the JD(S)-Congress coalition government, which is expected to present a fresh budget on July 5, wavering on the matter now? Or will it be a mere add-on to the budget presented by former chief minister Siddaramaiah before the assembly polls in February, depriving the ruling JD(S) of an opportunity to push through populist schemes of its own?

A day after television channels aired a video showing former chief minister Siddaramaiah speaking of his opposition to a new budget, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday  introduced an element of uncertainty, saying a discussion was still on whether or not it should be presented. 

The rift between the coalition partners revolves around the fact that Siddaramaiah, who heads the co-ordination committee of the coalition, would like to see the popular schemes he introduced during his tenure as CM continue while Kumaraswamy seems keen on framing new schemes keeping the needs of his party's voters in mind. With the 2019 parliament polls just 10 months away, the JD(S) is intent on making the best of Kumaraswamy's clout as CM and the fact that he handles the finance portfolio to win more seats than the two it secured in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking to reporters after a pre-budget meeting of the cooperation department here, the CM  went so far as to say he was not sure if he was going to present the budget or not.  "Some are suggesting that we should take a vote on account on the old budget presented in February and present a new budget after the Lok Sabha elections," he said. However, standing by his government's original plan to present a new budget, he argued that not doing so would amount to a breach of privilege of the new legislators elected in the recent assembly poll. "Over a 100 legislators, who had approved the last budget, lost the elections and those elected in their place have the right to have a new one," he asserted.  Coming down heavily on officials of the finance department for spreading rumours on the farmers' loan waiver promised by his government, Mr Kumaraswamy said  he was aware of the “commission deals” in Vidhana Soudha. “The farmers should get the benefit of loan waiver and not the middlemen. 

We are not here to take commissions,'' he warned, adding that cooperatives had already waived farmers' loans amounting to Rs 7,000 crore   and the cooperative banks were demanding waiver of more loans to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore  after March.  On the state's opposition to the Cauvery Water Management Board, Mr Kumaraswamy said he would again try to meet  PM Modi and Union Water Resource Minister, Nitin Gadkari to present Karnataka's case.