Nothing for the common man, Bengal in ‘directionless’ Budget: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday (February 1, 2026) described the Union Budget for 2026-27 as “directionless and visionless”, claiming that it had nothing to offer to the common man and her State.

Speaking to reporters at Kolkata airport before leaving for New Delhi, Ms. Banerjee also alleged that allocation for key sectors had been slashed in the Budget.

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“This Budget is directionless, visionless, actionless and anti-people. It is also anti-women, anti-farmer, anti-education and against the SC, ST and OBC… There is nothing on offer for Bengal in the Budget,” she said.

“Education funds and subsidies have been slashed, along with social security subsidy and fertiliser subsidy. This is a garbage of lies… of Himalayan incompetence. The economy will be totally derailed,” the CM claimed.

Ms. Banerjee asserted that the impact of the Budget was visible in the way the stock market reacted.

“The Sensex went down by over 1,100 points, the Nifty 50 went below 25,000. You can clearly see the impact,” she said.

“For West Bengal, what have they given [in the Budget]? Nothing. They talk big, but offer nothing,” Ms. Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, alleged.

Assembly elections are due in West Bengal in the coming months.

Referring to proposals related to infrastructure, Ms. Banerjee said the Centre “merely repeated” projects already announced.

“The freight corridor was mentioned in my Railway Budget in 2009. I had mentioned Dankuni and Amritsar. There has been no spending on this for the last 15 years,” she claimed.

“And, we have already announced six economic corridors. What they said about the three corridors is a lie,” the Chief Minister asserted.

Ms. Banerjee said “investment was already flowing” into projects such as the ‘Jungle Sundari’ economic corridor in Purulia.

“For this corridor, ₹72,000 crore is going to be invested. Investors have shown interest to set up cement, coal, leather and steel units,” she said.

Government sees us as ‘Bangladeshis’, says Abhishek Banerjee

Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday (February 1, 2026) accused the Centre of seeing people of West Bengal as “Bangladeshis”, as he lambasted the Finance Minister for not mentioning the State in her Budget speech.

Asked about the Budget, Mr. Banerjee said it has no solutions for any community, and called it a “faceless, baseless, and visionless Budget”.

“The Budget speech was 85 minutes long — 5,100 seconds — Bengal was not even mentioned. Forget Bengal; farmer, youth… There was nothing concrete for anyone.

“They talk about AI, Skill India, technological advancement; how would youth get employment, how would employment be generated, there is no mention. There is nothing on how to increase farmers’ income, there is nothing for any community,” Mr. Banerjee said.

“It is the Union government and its Ministers, the ones who presented the Budget, who call us Bangladeshi. Bengal was not even mentioned. Jal Jeevan Mission money has been stopped, they have not even fulfilled old promises…” he said.

“We have no expectations from this government, the way they have committed atrocities on people of Bengal since 2020… They know they are going to lose the State,” he added.

The TMC leader called Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech a “self-appraisal report”.

“Government would defend its Budget; to me, it is more like a self-appraisal report written by its own PR department. It does not have any concrete solution to offer to anybody,” he said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha earlier in the day.

Published – February 01, 2026 03:47 pm IST