Congress party allies Nationalist Congress Party [NCP] and AIADMK backed the NDA government's Railway budget which was a shocker. NCP has supported the government's decision of introducing Public Private Partnerships [PPP] and Foreign Direct Investments [FDI] in the Railways. Speaking, NCP senior leader Praful Patel said, “There is nothing to criticise in the budget. We welcome the PPP and FDIs in Railways, in fact there were proposed long back. But the real test lies in implementation. Let's see how the NDA government does over the period of 12 months.”

AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha commended the budget and commented that, “funds alloted to the pending project is appreciated instead of new projects. Some of the pending projects in Tamil Nadu will be completed early and people will be benefited.”

It will be interesting to see how NCP debates in the budget in Parliament. With this difference in opinions will have severe affect on the Assembly elections which are slated later this year.

(AW: Vamshi)