YSRCP leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Botcha Satyanarayana on Saturday (February 14) termed the Andhra Pradesh Budget presented by Minister for Finance Payyavula Keshav as an exercise in “self-praise and criticism of others,” alleging that the NDA government had failed to address key concerns of farmers and women.
In a brief interaction with The Hindu immediately after the conclusion of the Budget presentation, Mr. Satyanarayana said the government had not made specific allocations for the “Super Six” — the key political promises made in the NDA manifesto during the elections.
Responding to a query that a Budget need not explicitly mention manifesto promises if it intends to deliver them through departmental allocations, Mr. Satyanarayana argued that while election promises may not be named directly, the allocations to the concerned departments would reflect the government’s intent and credibility. “The figures themselves should indicate seriousness,” he said.
The YSRCP leader further alleged that there was “no sanctity” to the Budget as it deferred presenting detailed accounts related to the State’s debts when compared with the previous Budget. He pointed out that in its first full Budget last year, the NDA government had stated that it inherited a debt of ₹4.2 lakh crore from the previous YSRCP regime. However, in his speech this year, the Finance Minister claimed that the debt stood at about ₹9.7 lakh crore. “This anomaly exposes the credibility of the Budget presented under Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu,” he alleged.
Mr. Satyanarayana also criticised the repeated references to Mr. Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan in the Budget speech. “Their names were repeated more than 20 times, which is unnecessary in a State Budget,” he said, adding that the speech also sought to blame the previous YSRCP government despite its claim of having fulfilled all its promises.
He further alleged that there were no specific allocations for ensuring minimum support price (MSP) for crops such as chilli, mango, cocoa, maize and tobacco, where a majority of farmers have been facing continuous losses. Reacting to a question that the MSP is not the State subject and it is related to Centre, he said that even then the State has responsibility to protect the interests of farmers and hence the YSRCP government allocated funds for that purpose and like that the present NDA government also should come up for the well being of farming community.
He also stated that the government had not focused on providing zero-interest loans to women self-help groups (SHGs) in the Budget.
Mr. Satyanarayana said the YSRCP would raise all these issues during the Budget discussions in the Legislative Council.
Published – February 14, 2026 04:13 pm IST
