Battle lines drawn for Bihar budget session from today

PATNA: The battle lines appear to have been already drawn for the slightly over a month-long Budget session of the state legislature beginning on Monday with the address of governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar to the joint session of the legislative assembly and council lawmakers in the central hall. It is to be concluded on April 5 after 22 working days or sittings, accounting for weekly off days, Holi and other festivals.
This is the first Budget session of the second Grand Alliance (GA) government after CM Nitish Kumar dumped BJP in August last year.
State finance minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary will table the Economic Survey Report for 2022-23 in the state assembly soon after the governor's address and also present Budget in the House on Tuesday.
Observers feel the BJP lawmakers, who are itching to take on the Nitish led GA government headlong on the floor of the House, will allow the address of the governor to pass without any noisy scenes or catcalls. However, the pro-Hindutva slogans are likely to be heard in the House before the start of the governor's address.
Incidentally, Union home minister Amit Shah, in his address to two meetings of the party workers and sympathisers in the state on Saturday, has provided the context and themes.
His party lawmakers are expected to take cue from them to badger the Nitish government.
As Shah put it, the jungle raj has returned to the state under Nitish and BJP will fight against it. For their rhetoric, taking cue from Shah, they, besides referring to the law and order situation, will harp on "betrayal" of BJP by Nitish and question if Nitish will hand over power to deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. The BJP lawmakers are also expected to point the comparative performance of the NDA and GA governments.
Apprehending the things in the offing, Choudhary blunted various claims and assertions made by Shah, saying what he said reflected only his "mansik kuntha (stupidity, frustration)" and also his own desperation and that of his party.
"RJD and JD(U) have come together with mutual understanding and the GA government is running smoothly," Choudhary said, adding that despite financial constraints, the state has performed better than national average on various counts and the BJP government at the Centre had denied special category status to it.