Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday asserted that the state budget was not leaked and said the opposition BJP unnecessarily created a “drama” and exaggerated the issue just to divert the attention of people who were watching the budget presentation live across the state. Gehlot, who also holds the finance portfolio, read excerpts of the previous budget instead of Budget 2023-24 in the Rajasthan Assembly, the major goof-up leading to an uproar in the House and an apology from the chief minister who said it was human error.

Referring to the goof-up, Gehlot said it was human error and he said he had felt sorry for that.

“Despite that, they created drama unnecessarily and exaggerated the issue. They knew that the budget was going to be excellent,” he told reporters after presenting the budget.

The senior Congress leader said people in villages were sitting down to watch the budget live, but the BJP leaders wanted the message of the government not be delivered to them.

He said “not even 0.1 per cent of the budget was leaked”.

The gaffe in the Assembly led to two adjournments with the Opposition BJP alleging that the budget had been leaked and the presentation be postponed to another date.

When the House reassembled after the second adjournment, the chief minister said, “I am feeling sorry. An extra page was added by mistake. It was human error.” After Gehlot’s apology, the uproar ended and he presented the budget.

Gehlot said that ahead of the budget, the expectations and curiosity of people had increased and arrangements were made for people to watch the budget live in the state.

In the post-budget press conference, the chief minister claimed that there is no atmosphere against the state government which indicates that the mood of people is to “repeat the government in the upcoming elections”.

“There is no anti-government wave and therefore it seems that the people have realized our good governance. The coronavirus management in Rajasthan was excellent in the country, we saved lives,” he said, expressing hope that his government would be reelected.

This was the last budget of the Congress government as Rajasthan is going to assembly elections later this year.

Highlighting the key budget announcements, the chief minster said that the amount under Chiranjeevi Health Insurance scheme has been increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh per annum per family. He said “there is no other state in the country that has schemes like Rajasthan”.

Later, the chief minister tweeted that the budget is the announcement of a new dawn in Rajasthan.

“It has a new GPS of development which will take the Rajasthan progress vehicle to its destination quickly,” he said.