Budget pushed Karnataka into debt trap: Vijayendra

BJP State president B.Y. Vijayendra on Thursday termed the State Budget for 2026–27 a “bundle of lies” and alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had pushed Karnataka into a debt trap by proposing massive borrowings in the next fiscal year.

Participating in the Budget discussion in the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Vijayendra said Mr. Siddaramaiah would go down in the political history of the State as the Chief Minister who resorted to maximum borrowings not for capital expenditure or infrastructure development, but to meet day-to-day expenses.

Mr. Siddaramaiah, he said, had achieved a “hat-trick” by presenting a revenue deficit of ₹22,957 crore for 2026-27, marking the third consecutive year of revenue deficit. The budget proposes borrowings of ₹1.32 lakh crore, compared with ₹1.16 lakh crore in 2025-26, thereby missing a “golden opportunity” to pull the State back from fiscal stress.

He claimed that the State’s total liabilities would cross ₹8 lakh crore by the end of next year, which would further increase the burden of interest payments.

Mr. Vijayendra further alleged that delays in conducting elections to rural and urban local bodies, including city corporations in Bengaluru, had resulted in the State losing about ₹20,000 crore allocated by the 15th Finance Commission for 2021-26.

“Except criticising the BJP-led government at the Centre, the Congress government in Karnataka has done nothing meaningful or concrete in terms of developmental activities,” he said.

He added that the Budget had “dashed the hopes of the people” and described it as a “minority appeasement Budget” that neglected a large section of the population. By not filling vacant government posts, the government had saved ₹15,000 crore annually, but the failure to provide jobs had led to frustration among youth and protests, he said.