:The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday received the Centre’s reply to a reference on the Opposition parties’ demand for deferring the Union Budget presentation due to the coming elections in five poll-bound States. The Commission is examining the response.
While the Commission remained tight-lipped over the government’s exact response, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had last week said that there was no need for a delay in the Budget presentation. It is scheduled for February 1. The minister said the date for the Budget had been planned well before the election schedules were announced and that all the preparations had already been made.
His statement came after a delegation of Opposition parties petitioned the EC asking for a recommendation to the Central government to postpone the Budget presentation in Parliament till the elections were over.
Influencing voters
The Budget presentation is not likely to be deferred in case the government declines to postpone it. However, as the Model Code of Conduct is in place, the government will not be in a position to make any specific announcements related to the poll-bound States, which could amount to influencing the voters.
Pleading that the Budget might lend an opportunity to the ruling party to influence the voters, representatives of the Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal (United) (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had met the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi and urged that the government be told to defer it till the last date of elections on March 8.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha Leader of the Opposition, Ghulam Nabi Azad, told media persons that the United Progressive Allinace-II (UPA-II) government had postponed the Budget from February 28 to March 16 in 2012 due to the Assembly elections in these five States, after Opposition parties objected. Subsequently, the Commission had written to Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha seeking the government’s response by Tuesday.
