Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday presented his last Budget pleasing all in the poll bound Karnataka. The Budget, his sixth, largely contains expression of his appeasement policy to the hilt. Siddaramaiah who also holds the Finance port folio presented the State Budget for 2018-19. He has also set a record for presenting 13 budgets in the State at various stages.
Presenting the Budget, Siddaramaiah said, "For me, the Budget is neither a statistical jugglery nor lifeless mathematical calculations, but to say in simple terms, it is the Budget of the day to day life of every citizen of the State and it is the Budget of his family. I believe that the Budget document is the road to travel towards achieving the developmental goals. My aim of life is to act as promised. My Government has a sense of self-satisfaction of having fullfilled all the promises given to the people."
He went on to add, "today, there is no situation in the State where any person goes to bed with hunger. For the poor, a stomach full of meal is neither expensive nor a dream. We are satisfied that we have given the right to food. Karnataka has won the struggle against hunger.
"Ours is a farmer-friendly Government. Being a farmer’s son, I have the experience of the difficulties of a farmer’s household. Our Government has stood with the farmers in their difficult time. We have made an effort to mitigate the miseries of the farmers through several programmes including waiver of loan, interest free loan, support price and Krishi Bhagya. This is not a favour done by the Government. It is a small effort of showing indebtedness to farmers who are bread earners through reducing their burden.
Karnataka is witnessing a fierce election battle between the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP. The election is also a litmus test for the Congress President Rahul Gandhi who is temple hopping in the State to lead a soft Hindutva Politics to win the crucial elections. The BJP is giving a tough competition to the ruling Congress which is facing anti incumbency.
The Budget presented by Siddaramaiah ahead of PM Narendra Modi’s second visit to Karnataka which is expected to change the political dynamics is seen as an appeasement politics to garner more votes.