Union Budget 2025: Focus on allies, Bihar, and middle-class relief

2025 will see the fewest Assembly polls in any year during the current five-year term, therefore the Budget will be presented in a more favourable political context for the government

The political context of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s second Budget of its current tenure, which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present on Saturday (February 1), is much different from its first, tabled on July 23 last year, nearly 50 days after the June 4 Lok Sabha results. 

At that juncture, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which lost 63 seats in the Lok Sabha polls — dropping from 303 in 2019 to 240 in 2024, falling 32 short of a majority on its own—prioritised accommodating the concerns of its key allies, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and