Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said that he was looking forward to announcements for Kerala in the Union Budget 2026, with the state set to hold Assembly elections later this year.
Speaking ahead of the Budget presentation by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament, Tharoor spoke up on the issue of unemployment, saying “jobless growth doesn’t help anyone”.
“Looking forward to hearing what the Finance Minister has to tell us. The Economic Survey presents good economic growth, but a problem for young people in this country is whether the growth will be accompanied by jobs,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
“We are anxious to see what kind of schemes they have in mind. In Kerala, with elections coming up, we are keen to see what benefits the Central government might give us,” he added, further saying that it was “difficult” to speculate until the Budget was presented.
While Tharoor spoke on expectations from the Budget, his INDIA bloc colleague and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav expressed his disappointment with earlier announcements.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Yadav asked, “What expectations can we have from the Budget being presented by a government from whom we don’t have any expectations?”
“In the last few Budgets we have seen, it was for only 5% of the people. The government should assess if it has fulfilled all the promises it had made,” he added.
Budget speech to begin soon
FM Sitharaman has arrived at the Parliament and is set to begin her much-anticipated Budget speech shortly.
She was seen arriving, accompanied by Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Chief Economic Advisor Dr V Anantha Nageswaran, Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Ravi Agarwal, and other top officials from the Ministry of Finance.
The speech is scheduled to begin at 11 AM IST in the Lok Sabha.
As per the List of Business for the day, FM Sitharaman will also move for leave to introduce the Finance Bill, 2026 in the Lok Sabha and formally introduce the Bill, which gives legal effect to the financial proposals of the Central government.
Sunday’s Budget presentation will be Sitharaman’s ninth consecutive Union Budget.
