Samajwadi Party National President Akhilesh Yadav, in a scathing attack on the Yogi government for its 10th budget presented in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday, said it falls short of expectations.
Terming it a “farewell budget”, alluding to the ruling party’s prospects in the assembly elections due in the state, he said the budget, projected to be of the size of over ₹9 lakh crore, failed to meet public expectations.
During a press conference held at the Samajwadi Party’s state headquarters here on Wednesday, Akhilesh Yadav said, “Whenever you speak, you speak ill. This is a farewell budget, and now the BJP’s departure is certain.” The budget size naturally increases every year. So, simply increasing the amount cannot be considered an achievement. The real question is why previous budgets were not fully and effectively utilized. He alleged that the government failed to effectively spend more than 50 percent of the funds, which reflects administrative incompetence.
The SP chief said if Uttar Pradesh aims to become a $ 1 trillion economy, the state’s gross domestic product (GSDP) should be around ₹90 lakh crore. There is a significant gap between current claims and actual figures, raising questions about the government’s preparedness and intentions.
Raising the issue of the MSME sector, he said there are approximately 9.2 million units in the state, of which 8.2 million are still unregistered. He asked why such a large number of units remained unregistered in a decade. He argued that international trade agreements and policy changes will directly impact MSMEs and farmers, but the budget lacks a concrete strategy for these issues.
Akhilesh Yadav also criticized the government on issues such as youth employment, investment claims, healthcare, and law and order. He alleged that only about 57 percent of the budget allocation was spent on agriculture, 58 percent on health, and about 62 percent on basic education.
He asked how the public could truly benefit from new, larger budget announcements when the allocated funds for previous schemes hadn’t been fully utilized. Finally, he urged the public to understand the difference between budget promises and actual implementation.