'Finding Nirmala': Congress mocks Centre as FM misses pre-budget meet

New Delhi The absence of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the prebudget meet on Thursday raised some eyebrows in the opposition The Congress took a shot the ruling BJP party on Twitter on Sitharamanrsquos absence in the meeting with economists and experts at the Niti Aayog that was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the presentation of the union budgetThe Congress said on its official Twitter handle using the hashtag FindingNirmala suggesting to invite the finance minister in the next meetingHeres a suggestion next budget meeting consider inviting the Finance Minister FindingNirmala httpstcowKV35GTI04mdash Congress INCIndia January 9 2020Incidently while Nirmala Sitharaman was absent Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar were present at the PMs prebudget meetingThe Congress tagged a tweet of the BJP that said the finance ministry has invited suggestions from ldquoCitizens from all walks of liferdquo for the Union Budget 202021Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was not present as the Prime Minister met economists private equity and venture capitalists business leaders and agri experts at Niti Aayog and called for focussed efforts from all stakeholders to achieve the target of nearly doubling the size of the Indian economy to USD 5 trillion by 2024BJP replies to jibeThe ruling Bharatiya Janata Party hit back at the oppositions dig at Sitharamans absence at the prebudget meet The party took to their official Twitter handle in which they quoted Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Jawadekar calling the Congress comment sexist and asked them to apologise for the remark He also asked in the tweet Sonia Gandhi is the president of the Indian National Congress and a woman Wouldnt she have agreed to such a commentagravecurrenumlagravecurreniquestagravecurrendegagraveyenu00c2u008dagravecurrenregagravecurrensup2agravecurrenfrac34 agravecurrenu00c2u009cagraveyenu00c2u0080 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agravecurrensup1agraveyenu00c2u0088agravecurrenu00c2u0082 agravecurrenparaagraveyenu00c2u008dagravecurrendegagraveyenu00c2u0080 PrakashJavdekarmdash BJP BJP4India January 9 2020Where was NirmalaMeanwhile BJP sources said Sitharaman was holding prebudget meetings with party workers at the BJP headquarters at that time She held four rounds of meetings with BJP leaders at the party headquarters here taking feedback for the budgetBJP working president J P Nadda general secretaries B L Santhosh Bhupender Yadav and Arun Singh were among those who attended the meeting The finance minister met various sections of the party for consultation We are confident that a propeople budget will be presented Arun Singh saidThe fourparty meetings attended by Sitharaman included one each with BJP officebearers spokespersons functionaries of various morchas like those working with farmers youth and women among othersThe idea behind these meetings is to seek suggestions for the budget from business leaders farmer organisations trade unions and professional bodies such as ICAI and others party spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal saidAgarwal who is a spokesperson for economic issues and coordinating these meeting said that 11 meetings have been planned out of which seven have already been held at the party officeOne meeting for each specific sector is being held and the report of every meeting is being submitted to the partys working president J P Nadda he said Agarwal also added this exercise is being organised under the leadership of Nadda and the partys organisational general secretary B L SanthoshThe series of meetings began on December 19 and will conclude on January 14 The party will have a comprehensive view from stake holders of all sectors he said The first budget in the second term of the Narendra Modi government will be presented on February 1 The Budget session would be held in two phases from January 31 to April 3 The first phase of the session will be from January 31 to February 11 and the second will be from March 2 to April 3With inputs from PTICatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates