Congress, JDS differ on presenting new budget

Bengaluru: In yet another sign of birth pangs in their coalition, Congress and JDS in Karnataka on Saturday differed on the tabling of a new full fledged budget for 2018-19.

While the Congress said there was no need for a fresh budget and insisted that a supplementary budget would do, JD(S) asserted that a fresh one was needed to demonstrate the direction of the new government.

Strongly pushing for a new budget, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said he would meet Congress President Rahul Gandhi to sort out the issue soon.

Former chief minister and Chairman of the Congress-JDS coordination committee Siddaramaiah expressed his strong reservations over presenting a new full fledged budget, saying there was no need for such an exercise.

Siddaramaiah, who is also the Congress Legislature Party leader, said he had already tabled the budget as chief minister a few months ago.

"Budget has already been tabled. It is a full-fledged budget only. That's why we had taken vote on accounts for fourmonths. It will be there till July end. All the ongoing programmes and new programmes announced in the budget will continue," said Siddaramaiah.