Chennai : Tamil Nadu reacted to the last budget of Modi government before general elections on predictable lines. While the ruling AIADMK and Tamil Nadu government welcomed it as a pragmatic and balanced budget, opposition DMK slammed it as an exercise full of cheap tricks and said it was nothing short of an election manifesto.

Chief Minister Edapaddi Palaniswamy reacted to the budget saying that it was the best that was possible, one that aimed at all round development as also one that focused on the agrarian crisis. The AIADMK government was careful to be seen on the right side of the central government and also was alleged to be in close touch with the BJP leadership for possible tie up for general elections.

But for the moment, the AIADMK has denied such talk and said it was wanting to contest all the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu.

But when it came to the opposition DMK, it blasted the budget as a cheap tricky election manifesto aimed at misguiding the people of the country.

DMK president MK Stalin said in a statement that “in short, this is not a budget. It is cheap, tricky election manifesto to misguide the Indian people.” He said Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has submitted a full budget and not an interim budget containing many sops to the electorate and long term measures aimed at growth.

The hidden agenda of the central government is not so hidden and the budget pronouncements are nothing but ploys to attract farm votes that had gone away from the BJP.

Here in Tamil Nadu, it will not cut much ice as farmers from the state, and also from other parts of the country, protested in New Delhi demanding farm loan waivers, there was no response. No one from the government even met the protesting farmers from the state, Stalin said. The announcement to deposit cash in the bank accounts of farmers before March 31, is made with an eye on the general elections, it is clear he said.