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Union Budget: Opposition cries foul, the ball in EC's court

Opposition parties allege that ruling allaince will gain undue advantage if the budget is presented before Assembly elections

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Opposition leaders come out of the Election Commission after demanding postponement of the Union Budget presentation
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Advanced presentation of union budget on February 1, barely two days ahead of commencement of elections in five states on February 4, has united the opposition parties to seek intervention of the Election Commission to postpone the budget.

Eleven MPs from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, BSP, Janata Dal (United), DMK and RJD met the Election Commission on Thursday and presented a memorandum to reschedule the presentation of budget in March as has been the usual practice.

Though the Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said the election commission had prior knowledge of advancing of the budget date, the poll watch dog can still intervene as indicated by Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi while announcing the election schedule.

The EC is well within its right to request the government to defer the budget back to its original date of March 1 by which time most phases of the assembly elections will be through. Presentation of the budget on March 1 will leave only one phase of polls in Uttar Pradesh and two phases in Manipur.

Opposition parties allege that the budget will give undue advantage to the ruling party that can use it to tilt the balance in its favour by giving sops to people.

"There can be no concession to any political party. This is against the Constitution and the ideal of democracy. To ensure fair elections, the budget must be deferred to after the election results on March 11," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said after meeting the Commission.

Even BJP's coalition partner in NDA Shiv Sena has demanded deferment of budget saying that the government, as a moral duty, should postpone it otherwise it would mar the entire budget session.

According to the former Chief Election Commissioner, SY Quraishi, the issue has become contentious as the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has come in place and the issue has been raised by several political parties.

The MCC clearly states that no new announcement can be made once it comes into effect but such announcements may take place in the budget, says Quraishi.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra contested this. "MCC would have come in place had this been the Lok Sabha election. These are state specific elections and that it is why the union budget does not fall in the ambit of violation of the MCC," said Patra.

However, according to Charan Singh Sapra of Congress, it is a question of moral code of conduct which UPA government adhered to in 2012 when BJP as opposition sought deferment of budget and Congress agreed. BJP is defying both model code of conduct and moral code of conduct.

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