In a year when four States and one Union Territory — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry — are headed for Assembly elections, expectations around the Union Budget, at least in political circles, were that these States would receive some goodies.

While the Budget did include announcements touching these States, the measures were packaged within broader multi-State initiatives that reflected the Government’s attempt to balance domestic political expectations with global economic uncertainties. 

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This was, in fact, one of the first questions Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was asked during her post-budget press conference — whether she had deliberately avoided poll-bound States after previous budgets that announced sops were criticised. “There is enough to cover all the election-bound States. Much has been announced for election and non-election States,” she said.

For West Bengal, the announcements include a proposed high-speed rail corridor between Siliguri and Varanasi, a Dankuni (East)-Surat (West) dedicated freight corridor, and an East-West Industrial Corridor. Tamil Nadu and Kerala feature in a Rare Earth Corridor along with Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, alongside incentives for farmers growing cashew, coconuts and Cocoa. The “Turtle Trails” project includes coastal areas of Odisha, Karnataka and Kerala. Assam is set to be a part of a Buddhist tourism circuit encompassing northeastern States like Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Manipur and Mizoram. The Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health in Tejpur, Assam, will also be upgraded.

By wrapping these measures in a multi-State spread, the government appeared to send the message that while concerns over domestic politics remain important, the global headwinds and the trade issues hanging fire were looming over it all.

The setting up of a National Institute of Hospitality for training in the service sector, encouraging women in STEM by setting up girls’ hostels in STEM institutions across districts, and several measures in the tax proposals to boost the manufacturing sector were the bigger announcements. A ₹40,000-crore push for Semiconductor Mission 2.0, and an electronics manufacturing boost were also announced.

All these measures, government sources said, are aimed at insulating India from global trade disruptions, strengthening supply chains, and preparing Indians for different skill set demands from countries with which India has concluded or is finalising Free Trade Agreements.

Many of these measures, however, are not immediately saleable in electoral terms and will require careful support from the government to bear fruit. The broader aim, government managers argue, is to craft a new narrative — of constructing a rail track in anticipation of a train running on it not today, but several years later — a horizon that may be far, but could affect the legacy of the Modi years (the period of governance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi).

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.