Rajasthan Budget: Ashok Gehlot goofs up, reads old budget for seven minutes

As soon as the chief minister made the first two announcements, which featured in Budget 2022-23, the Opposition began creating a ruckus and stormed into the well of the House.

Jaipur, Feb 10: In a major goof-up, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday accidentally read the old Budget speech for seven minutes before being interrupted.

As soon as the chief minister made the first two announcements, which featured in Budget 2022-23, the Opposition began creating a ruckus and stormed into the well of the House.

Speaker C P Joshi asked them to maintain order but the Opposition continued its uproar, leading to the House being adjourned for half an hour.

After the adjournment, BJP MLAs staged a sit-in inside the well of the House.

Attacking Gehlot, former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje said "for 8 minutes, CM kept reading the old budget. When I was the CM, I used to repeatedly check and read before presenting the budget. You can imagine how safe the state is in the hands of a CM who reads out an old budget."

"This budget cannot be presented. Was it leaked?," asked BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria.

Amid backlash, the chief minister retorted, "You (Opposition) can point out only if there's a difference between what's written in the budget in my hand and its copies given to the House members. If a page was added to my budget copy by mistake, then how does the matter of leaking of budget arise?."

Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat took a jibe at the Chief Minister, saying he campaigned for a new budget but read out the old one.

"Gehlot ji is a wonderful person, campaigned for this year's budget and started reading the old budget! The people were thinking of a light of relief in the darkness spread by misrule, here the chief minister's light went out," said

"I don't know whether to laugh or cry!," he added.

Notably, this is the last budget of the Gehlot government as Rajasthan is going for Assembly election later this year.

Political crisis in Rajasthan

Rajasthan is facing political instability amid fued between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot. In July 2020, a group of dissident MLAs supporting Sachin Pilot rebelled against the government.

Though Congress managed to find a solution to the 2020 rebellion, the infighting between the Sachin Pilot and Gehlot camp remain a problem for Ashok Gehlot time and again.