New Delhi: The Rajasthan Assembly was adjourned for half an hour on Friday soon after Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot started reading excerpts from the previous Budget instead of the Budget 2023-24, before his state goes to polls later this year.
Embarrassingly for the Chief Minister, he read out last year’s Budget for seven minutes before a noisy Opposition pointed it out. Gehlot was then stopped by the chief whip.
The House was adjourned for half an hour as the Opposition’s BJP members stormed the well of the House, protesting the “old Budget.” Even after the House resumed, they were seen squatting in the well.
Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said, “This Budget can’t be presented. Was it leaked?”
#WATCH | Rajasthan State Assembly proceedings disrupted as the Opposition alleges that CM Ashok Gehlot presented old budget today
This budget cannot be presented. Was it leaked?: BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria pic.twitter.com/Ns4jCrVoYY
— ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) February 10, 2023
As the commotion continued, Gehlot told the Opposition, “You can point out only if there’s a difference between what’s written in the Budget in my hand and its copies given to House members. If a page was added to my Budget copy by mistake, then how does the matter of leaking it arise?”
Later, when House proceedings resumed to hear the right Budget, Gehlot said: “I feel sorry. What happened was by mistake.”
House proceedings resume in Rajasthan Legislative Assembly;
CM Ashok Gehlot presents budget 2023 after he says "I feel sorry, what happened was by mistake."
The opposition alleged that CM read old budget at the start of the budget presentation pic.twitter.com/Gb6Tiae7Yt
— ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) February 10, 2023
Gehlot, who also holds the finance portfolio, was presenting his Budget on the theme – “Bachat, Rahat, Badhat (savings, relief and progress).”
BJP leader and former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje berated Gehlot for not reading the document properly before presenting it in the Assembly. She said, “This shows how he is governing his state… Such a state will definitely suffer.”
BJP MLA Rajendra Rathore said the Assembly had been insulted by the “presentation of an old Budget”.
Also read: Sachin Pilot writes to PM Modi seeking national status for Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project