Mumbai: It was a shocking claim: the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde claimed on Tuesday that details of the State budget were leaked on the Twitter handle of finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar before it was presented in the Assembly.
The Opposition protested against the alleged leak by staging a walk-out in both Houses of Maharashtra legislature. The members also demanded an apology from Mungantiwar and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, saying that this was an 'insult' of legislators.
"We were in power for 15 years, but the budget never got leaked. Now the budget provisions are being put out on the finance minister's Twitter account along with an advertisement, even before he read out the proposals to us," Nationalist Congress Party MLA and former state finance minister Ajit Pawar told reporters.
Munde and some other opposition members raised the issue in the Council and disrupted the budget presentation by Minister of State for Finance Deepak Kesarkar in the House.
(Since Maharashtra Legislature comprises the Assembly and the Council, the state budget is presented simultaneously by a cabinet minister and a junior minister in the Lower and Upper House, respectively.)
When Kesarkar tried to present the budget in the Upper House, Munde waved his mobile phone and then read out from it some budget details, which he claimed were posted on Mungantiwar's Twitter account.
Munde said even before Mungantiwar read out the first part of the budget in the Assembly, his twitter account had already put out the information. As confusion prevailed on the issue, Legislative Council Chairman Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar adjourned the House for 10 minutes.
When the House resumed, BJP member and state revenue minister Chandrakant Patil said he would move a no-confidence motion against the chairman. "We have come to the conclusion that the House chairman cannot protect our rights. We will move a no- confidence motion against you," said Patil, who is leader of the house said.
