Opposition walkout of House over 'budget leak'

Mumbai: The members of the Opposition parties staged a walkout from the lower House alleging that the state’s budget for 2019-20 was leaked.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar said that the budget was leaked through minister’s official Twitter handle before the presentation.

As the Speaker  Haribhau Bagde did not allow the Opposition members to speak, they left the House. Dhananjay Munde, leader of Opposition in the Council, also raised the issue, which led to the adjournment of the House for ten minutes.

Defending the finance minister, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told the House that the budget was tabled at 2.00 pm while the budget details were tweeted at 2.16 pm.

“The Opposition members have misunderstood, I request the Opposition leaders to attend the House,” he said.  

The deputy group leader of the Congress party in Assembly, Naseem Khan claimed the tweets along with the memes were shared on Twitter at least five minutes before the budget speech began. Mr Khan also asked the government to apologise to members of the House, failing which he threatened to bring in a breach of privilege motion against the finance minister.

When the minister of state for finance Deepak Kesarkar rose to present the budget in the upper House, Mr Munde waved his mobile phone and read out budget details.  

Following a commotion over the issue, Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, Chairman of the upper House, adjourned the House for 10 minutes.

When the proceedings resumed, revenue minister and leader of the House, Chandrakant Patil said that he would move a no-confidence motion against Mr Nimbalkar.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Pawar said, “We were in power for 15 years, but the budget never got leaked. It means that the team handling the minister’s Twitter account had the details.” “This is an insult of the members. Both Mr Mungantiwar and Mr Fadnavis should apologise,” he added.