Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, who also holds the Finance portfolio, would set a record of sorts tomorrow by presenting his 13th State budget and 6th in a row.
He will present the Budget for 2018-19 though it will not be a full-fledged one but a vote-on-account Budget in view of the upcoming election.
The 70-year-old leader presented 12 budgets so far, six as the Congress Chief Minister since 2013 and seven as Deputy Chief Minister in the first Congress-Janata Dal coalition government in 2005 to 2007 and in the then Janata Dal-United (JD-U) government from 1995 to 2000.
Siddharamaiah presented the State Budget for seven times under three Chief Ministers – twice under H.D Deve Gowda in 1995 and 1996, three times under J.H. Patel of the JD(U) in 1997, 1998 and 1999 and under Congress’ N. Dharam Singh in 2005 and 2006.
He is also the second in the southern State to complete the five-year term as Chief Minister – 40 years after Devaraj Urs (1972-78) as about 10 Chief Ministers of three parties could not compete their full term in between for various reasons.
Siddharamaiah switched over to the Congress from the JD(S) in August 2006 following differences with its supreme and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and his second son and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
“Though it will be a vote-on-account, in view of the Assembly election in April-May, it will have allocations for various ministries and new proposals for people’s welfare,” said an official from the CM’s Secretariat, who did not want to be named.
This post was published on February 15, 2018 7:29 pm