KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the BJP-led Centre over the Union Budget 2026–27, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleging that the Budget was “directionless, visionless and anti-people”, and had nothing concrete to offer the poll-bound state.
Fearing defeat in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections, the Union Budget was a “garbage of lie” and had failed to address the concerns of the people of the state, the Trinamool Congress leadership alleged.
While leaving for Delhi to meet Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at Nirvachan Sadan on Monday, the Chief Minister told reporters at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata that the Budget had nothing for the common people.
“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,” Mamata Banerjee alleged.
“They (the BJP) will suffer a defeat in the polls in Bengal and that’s why they want to deprive our state financially but not politically. There is nothing for common people and social security in the Budget,” she alleged.
“This Budget is a garbage of lie. There is only one tax structure – GST in the country. They are minting money through GST from Bengal but nothing is given to our state. I had announced a proposal for setting up of a freight corridor between Dankuni and Surat in 2009 when I was the Union Railway minister, but the proposed project was put on hold,” the Trinamool Congress supremo said.
“This is a humpty dumpty Budget and there are only big talks in the Budget speech. The Centre is yet to release our dues of two lakh crore rupees,” she alleged.
Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday accused the Centre of viewing the 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, Banerjee said it had 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; farmers, youth… there was nothing concrete for anyone,” he said.
The Diamond Harbour MP also alleged that the BJP government at the Centre has stopped releasing funds allotted for various Central schemes in West Bengal since the party was defeated in the 2021 Assembly polls in the state.
People would give a fitting reply to the saffron party in the coming Assembly elections in Bengal, the national general secretary of the ruling party in the state said.
The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s ninth consecutive Budget, however, proposed a new dedicated freight corridor linking Dankuni in West Bengal to Surat in Gujarat, an integrated East Coast Industrial Corridor with a major node at Durgapur, and tourism-focused interventions under the Centre’s Purvodaya vision, measures that the BJP says reinforce its narrative of development-led politics in eastern India ahead of the polls.
The Dankuni–Surat freight corridor, pitched as a move to promote environmentally sustainable cargo movement and reduce logistics costs, has emerged as the Budget’s most politically salient promise for West Bengal.