Assembly: tumultuous Budget session ahead

Thiruvananthapuram: Curtains go up for the Budget session of the Assembly on Friday with the ruling and Opposition fronts poised for the final battle of wits. Both sides have high stakes as the general election is round the corner. This will be the last session of the House before the elections.

The Opposition is unlikely to use the extreme forms of protest such as throwing out the chair from the Speaker’s podium this time since such actions last year did not won it any praise. Moreover, there is ample material for the Opposition to use in the debate if it is willing to do the homework.

Several of the Ministers are facing allegations and the government is trying every trick up its sleeve to wriggle out accusations and court orders.  This will be very embarrassing for the ruling Front. The Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will have the hard task of defending himself from the solar scam.

The ruling Front will be use the SNC Lavalin case to fight back. This could place the Opposition Leader V. S. Achuthanandan in an embarrassing position. He had held that there was corruption behind the deal with SNC Lavalin for renovation power houses in which his party leader Pinarai Vijayan was alleged to be involved.

The Chief Minister will be presenting the Budget on February 12. Being an election year, he will choose to present a populist Budget.  Revenue deficits and inability to find funds for capital expenditure will remain. The Opposition is sure to protest against the presentation of the Budget.

As is customary, the session will be beginning with the Governor’s address to the House. The Opposition has already communicated to the Governor that he should not be delivering policy address of a Government that was immersed in corruption. Whether the Opposition will boycott the address or stage some sort of protest demonstrations is to be seen.

Altogether, the House will have 14 sittings before adjourning sine die on February 25.