Chennai, Aug 5 — AIADMK general secretary and former Chief Minister, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on the TVK government’s maiden Budget, describing it as a "huge disappointment" and giving it an overall score of "zero" for what he claimed was the absence of substantive new schemes.
Reacting to the 2026-27 Revised Budget presented in the Assembly, Palaniswami accused the C. Joseph Vijay-led government of repackaging welfare programmes introduced by previous AIADMK and DMK governments instead of unveiling fresh initiatives.
He claimed the TVK government had completed around 85 days in office but had so far failed to introduce a single significant new scheme.
Despite expectations created by the Chief Minister and his ministers ahead of the Budget, there was little of consequence in the financial statement, he alleged.
“This is TVK’s first Budget. The Chief Minister and ministers claimed it would be a great Budget, but there is nothing significant in it. Existing schemes have merely been renamed and given new labels,” Palaniswami claimed, accusing the government of relying on speeches and slogans since assuming office.
The AIADMK leader also questioned why several key promises made by TVK during the Assembly election campaign had not found place in the Budget. He specifically referred to the promise to increase monthly financial assistance for women from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500, provide six free LPG cylinders to households and waive farm loans.
Palaniswami said voters had expected the government’s first Budget to provide a clear road map for implementing these commitments.
He claimed that even the farm loan waiver promise had not been fully implemented and said the Budget neither contained major new welfare initiatives nor concrete measures to fulfil the party’s election assurances.
Raising concerns over Tamil Nadu’s finances, Palaniswami pointed to the State’s overall debt of Rs 10,98,768 crore and a fiscal deficit of Rs 1,21,819 crore. He demanded that the government explain how it intended to finance its programmes, claiming that it had already borrowed around Rs 20,000 crore during its brief tenure.
Palaniswami also expressed scepticism over the government’s decision to constitute a five-member expert committee to suggest measures to stabilise the State’s finances.
He alleged that the panel could eventually be used to justify additional borrowing, drawing parallels with committees constituted during the previous DMK government.