Budget 2026: Mamata Banerjee says ‘nothing for the common man, Bengal’

Opposition parties on Sunday (February 1, 2026) described the Union Budget 2026 as “anti-poor” and “detached” from the country’s economic realities. Left leaders said it offered no relief to workers, farmers or the unemployed while continuing to prioritise big corporate interests. Trinamool Congress National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee said the Finance Minister failed to mention West Bengal even once.

Calling the Budget “faceless, baseless and visionless”, Mr. Banerjee said the Finance Minister, in her 85-minute speech, did not speak about West Bengal even once.

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“Centre views Bengal as Bangladesh… Otherwise why was Bengal not mentioned even once?…We had no expectations with this Budget. They knew that even if they spent money in Bengal, they wouldn’t win. So, from their perspective if you see they have preferred not to spend any money on Bengal,” he said. West Bengal goes to the polls in March-April this year.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary M.A. Baby said the Budget “exposes the blind commitment” of the Modi-led government to a handful of corporate houses. Mr. Baby said cuts in fertiliser, food, and petroleum subsidies amounted to a “naked assault” on workers and peasants, and warned that transfers to States had fallen “by lakhs of crores”, undermining fiscal federalism. The Budget, he argued, would deepen inequality and worsen the ongoing economic crisis.

Echoing similar criticism, CPI general secretary D. Raja said the Budget was “detached from the concerns of the masses” and marked by “deliberate vagueness.” He said the Finance Minister had avoided giving scheme-wise allocations, calling it an attempt to obscure funding cuts. Mr. Raja said the government had failed to stimulate demand despite the Economic Survey’s emphasis on domestic consumption. On agriculture and employment, he said the government had ignored demands for a legal MSP and continued to push anti-labour policies.

All India Forward Bloc general secretary G. Devarajan described the Budget as a “betrayal of the people, workers and the federal spirit”, saying it failed to address basic issues such as inflation and unemployment. He also criticised the government for cutting subsidies in critical sectors.

The CPI(ML) Polit Bureau said in a statement that the slogan “viksit Bharat” rings hollow as subsidies for food and fertilisers have been cut. It also underlined the push for private-led healthcare and education, and the focus on corporate-friendly projects.