Mumbai, Jun 28 (IANS): Nationalist Congress Party (SP) state President Jayant Patil on Friday called the 2024-25 state budget presented by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who also holds the finance portfolio, an attempt to make up for the losses suffered by the ruling MahaYuti in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

“The MahaYuti’s situation is akin to ‘chadar lagi fatne, khairat lagi batne’ (sheet is torn, so now dole). They are aware that they have to distribute all these (freebies) for the next couple of months, and later it will be the concern of the next government,” Patil said.

Assembly elections in Maharashtra are scheduled to be held held later this year.

Accusing Ajit Pawar of merely juggling with the budgetary figures, Patil said the state government has copied the big announcements made by the Centre but nothing will come out of them.

Patil also referred to point No. 101 of the budget proposals in which Ajit Pawar said: “I have announced ambitious new schemes for various sections of society in this budget. It has been decided to form a high-level committee to evaluate the schemes and rationalise them so that the benefits reach directly to the eligible beneficiaries in the state.”

“This implies that the schemes have been announced haphazardly. The high-level committee will strike down the proposals on different grounds, so none of the schemes will fructify. This is irresponsible and akin to cheating the people of the state,” said Patil.

NCP (SP) chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase also slammed the budget proposals as MahaYuti’s “calculated ploy to hide the government’s failures in the past two years, just before the Assembly elections".

“The state has piled up a debt burden of over Rs 7 lakh crore. Ajit Pawar’s budget is nothing more than a sugarcoated document designed to misguide the masses. It has failed to address critical financial issues, unemployment, and agrarian crisis. How it will attract big investors to the state and solve the other problems confronting Maharashtra,” Tapase asked.

He also questioned from where will the government get funds to finance these populist schemes and initiatives while bereft of a realistic plan for debt reduction and fiscal stability.

Both Patil and Tapase claimed that people have already seen through the 'hoax' of the state government and in the next Assembly elections, the MahaYuti will be relegated to the Opposition benches.