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‘Anti-women, anti-farmer, anti-education’: Mamata on Union Budget 2026
Trinamool Congress boss, whose govt in West Bengal is facing a challenge from Centre's ruling BJP in assembly polls due soon, termed the budget “directionless”
The Union Budget 2026-27 had “nothing on offer for Bengal”, according to chief minister Mamata Banerjee. She was reacting to reporters' questions at the Kolkata airport before leaving for Delhi on Sunday just after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's speech.
The Trinamool Congress boss, whose regime in West Bengal is facing a challenge from the Centre's ruling BJP in assembly elections due soon, termed the budget “anti-women, anti-farmer, anti-education”, as well as “directionless” and “visionless” with “nothing for the common man”.
In Delhi, from the national Opposition camp, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said his state Kerala, also poll-bound, did not get anything.
“We were waiting for the All India Institute of Ayurveda. We wanted this in Kerala… But we didn't hear Kerala's name,” Tharoor said.
“We heard the names of fishermen and coconuts — that could be Kerala – but when they spoke of ship repair, they mentioned Varanasi and Patna's names, not Kerala. This is a little surprising,” he added.
"But perhaps there are more details in the budget document. I have yet to read it. There were very few details in the speech though," he further said.
Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi declined to comment on the budget. "I will speak tomorrow, using the platform provided by Parliament," Rahul Gandhi told reporters.
The Congress party, however, described the budget as lacklustre.
"While the documents need to be studied in detail, it is clear after 90 mins that Budget 2026/27 falls woefully short of the hype that was generated about it. It was totally lacklustre. The speech was also non-transparent since it gave no idea whatsoever of budgetary allocations for key programmes and schemes," said Congress MP Jairam Ramesh.
