Maharashtra budget an exercise in deceiving farmers and workers, says opposition

Mumbai: The opposition parties on Friday slammed the budget presented by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, calling it deceptive for farmers and workers. State Congress chief Harshawardhan Sapkal said the Mahayuti govt deceived their beloved sisters again by showing them the rosy dream of a developed Maharashtra 2047. Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray said: "This is a budget that shows a mirage of development." He said it will not do any good for the state. Uddhav said it is a deceptive budget for farmers and workers. The budget for the year 2026–27, presented by the Mahayuti govt, has left out minority communities, with not a single new announcement for them, said Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh."Everyone will know in a few days what difference this budget is going to make in their lives. I think everyone knows what the state's financial situation is. This is a budget that takes out loans and bursts crackers. I don't think it will do any good for the state. The current CM is saying that we make the saat bara (land extracts) for farmers clean. They have not done it completely. But about five years ago, we had waived off loans of up to Rs 2 lakh to farmers in a time-bound manner. After this loan waiver was done in a time-bound manner, there were no rules or conditions like eligible and ineligible. We had waived off the farmers' loans completely after the farmers visited the centre only twice. Unfortunately, Covid-19 came after that. Therefore, when we started giving an incentive amount of Rs 50,000 to farmers who repay their loans regularly, our government was toppled," Uddhav said. "There is no mention of the substantial financial assistance of Rs 2,100 per month that was supposed to be given to the beloved sisters. However, there are concrete plans for the contractors. There are concrete plans for the contractors, where the road will be built from every place. But this is a fraudulent budget for the farmers and workers," Uddhav said.Shaikh highlighted that the state economic survey presented on Thursday showed that less than 50% of the funds allocated for minorities had been utilised till December 2025 in the current financial year. "In this backdrop, it was expected that the Mahayuti government would make adequate allocations for minorities. However, the budget has come as a great disappointment for us and shows stepmotherly treatment towards minorities. While the Mahayuti government has permanently closed the doors for Muslim reservation and is now planning an anti-conversion law that will target the Muslim community, we were expecting some welfare schemes for minorities but have been completely sidelined. The budget shows that the Mahayuti government does not care about the Muslim community," remarked Shaikh.NCP (SP) MLA Shashikant Shinde termed the budget deceptive and said it ignores rural economy while favouring industrialists and contractors. "There is no opposition to the development of temples and forts, but the budget lacks a vision that ensures justice to farmers and ordinary citizens in tune with the ideals of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj," Shinde said.