Polls UnliKely to aFFect BUdGet

‘The government has all the powers to table the budget’.

The BJP will be contesting the Uttar Pradesh polls without a Chief Minister face, functionaries within the RSS said. According to them, both the RSS and the BJP are of the opinion that given UP’s caste equations, it will not be wise to project a CM candidate before the elections.

Functionaries within the RSS and the BJP told The Sunday Guardian that there was absolutely no truth behind speculations that party MP Varun Gandhi, Uma Bharti, Yogi Adityanath, Kalraj Mishra or the BJP’s state president Keshav Prasad Maurya might be declared as the party’s CM face.

“In the RSS-BJP coordination meeting, which was held in Lucknow on 14 December, it was decided that we need not project a CM face. Our campaign will be centered on the work that we have done at the Centre in the past two-and-ahalf years and that will be our ‘face’, which we will present to the voters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be our ‘face’. As things stand now, it is very unlikely that a CM face might be declared at the last moment,” a key RSS functionary, who was present in the meeting, said.

The meeting was attended by joint general secretary and third in the RSS hierarchy, Dattatreya Hosabale, RSS-BJP key linkman Dr Krishna Gopal, national organisation secretary Ramlal and co-national organisation secretary Shiv Prakash, Keshav Prasad Maurya and state organisation secretary Sunil Bansal. Earlier, supporters of Varun Gandhi, who is an MP from Sultanpur, had increased their efforts to declare him as the party’s CM face. However, that is unlikely to happen now.

The RSS functionaries also admitted that it was right now difficult to comment on the party’s chances because of the fluid political environment. “We are still in the process of analysing it (party’s chances). How much will demonetisation affect our chances, either positively or negatively, is still not clear. Things will become clearer in two weeks’ time. It is a big complex state and the activities happening within the Samajwadi Party need to be factored in before giving any concrete pre-poll opinion,” one of the RSS functionaries added.

There were talks within the BJP that the party might push former Union minister and former Madhya Pradesh CM Uma Bharti to the fore. However, sources close to Uma Bharti, who is an MP fom Jhansi, dismissed such speculation, saying that the party high command has not sounded off Bharti for any such role.

“Whether there will be any CM face and who it will be are things that will be decided by the party high command. We have not received any communication in this regard as of now,” sources close to Bharti said.

The supporters of Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath are vociferously pushing for declaring him as the CM candidate, but the party high command, particularly Prime Minister Modi, according to party sources, is not in Yogi’s favour. “If the party wins, we will elect the CM as per the decision of the MLAs. Let each individual, who is aspiring for the post, work for the party’s win in his or her area of strength. Declaring one face right now will cause more damage than good for the party’s prospects in the state,” the RSS functionary added.

The Union Budget is unlikely to be affected becasue of the Assembly elections in the five states. According to experts, the government has all the powers to table the budget and it will do so if it wishes. The matter is with the Election Commission at the moment.

The Narendra Modi-led government is planning to present the budget on 1 February. Assembly elections will be held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur from 4 February to 8 March.

Opposition parties such as the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United), met the Election Commission to argue the case for postponing the budget, which, according to them, will give the government an unfair advantage ahead of the Assembly elections. The parties are demanding that the budget be presented after the election results on 11 March.

Constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap said the Election Commission does not have the power to stop the government from tabling the budget. “Though the Commission is looking into the representation made by Opposition parties, I don’t think it will be able to stop the government from tabling the budget as per schedule. In my view, the budget will definitely come, on time,” he said. According to a former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the government is well within its right to present the budget. “This budget is for the entire country, whereas elections are taking place in five states only. The government took a decision to advance the budget much before the elections were announced. Therefore, I don’t think the EC will stop the government from tabling it,” he added.

Sources said that there has been no precedent of the Election Commission stepping in to announce any change in the date of the Union Budget. According to a BJP source, ev- ery year, some election or the other keeps on taking place, but that should not affect the presentation of the Budget, which is meant for the entire country. He said, even in 2014, the Budget was presented before the elections.

A long time ago, the government decided to advance the date of the General Budget to make sure that the proposals took effect from 1 April. The first part of the Budget session of Parliament will start on 31 January. The Cabinet had also decided to merge the Railway Budget with the annual budget.

CEC Nasim Zaidi told media persons that the Commission was looking into the representation made by some political parties.