In a Budget first,Pranab reads to empty Oppn benches

However,Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj led the walkout,saying: Only yesterday we discussed price rise and today we get the price rise.

Mukherjee eventually read out his Budget speech with just expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh,former JDU leader and Independent MP Digvijay Singh and another Independent MP,Inder Singh Namdhari,occupying the Opposition benches. The Treasury benches were almost full.

JDU leader Sharad Yadav,SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD chief Lalu Prasad all stood up to protest when the Finance Minister unveiled the proposal to hike duties on petroleum products. They were soon followed by BJP leaders and then the entire Opposition benches.

In what must worry the Congress,UPA supporters like the SP,RJD and BSP joined the walkout. This was in contrast from Thursday when the BJP-led NDA did not join the Mulayam-Lalu-Left-led walkout against Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawars reply to the discussion on price rise,and waited for its time to stage a walkout.

The Opposition later held a joint press conference outside Parliament,addressed by Swaraj,Mulayam,Sharad Yadav,Lalu,and Left leaders Gurudas Dasguta and Basudeb Acharia. They invoked the spirit of Emergency and vowed to keep up the heat on the petroleum price hike issue.

We have boycotted the Budget. After a discussion on price rise,the government has increased the prices of petroleum prices, said Swaraj. To the Congress charge that walking out was unconstitutional,the BJP said the Congress had itself walked out during presentation of the Gujarat Budget earlier this week.

Farmers,workers and the poor would be the worst-hit,and we cannot be mute spectators, said Acharia.

Former finance minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said though there were several announcements in the Budget which were anti-people,when Mukherjee announced customs duty on petroleum products,he crossed the limit of tolerance of the people and the party spontaneously decided to stage a walkout. We are going to oppose the Budget. Cut motion is a prerogative available in the Lok Sabha,and we will definitely bring it to censure the government on its anti-people policies, he added.

SP leaders,too,were seen discussing the option of cut motion.

The entire Opposition is together on this issue, said Lalu Prasad,adding that the government was acting in a dictatorial manner against the interests of the common people. He said Parliament would not be allowed to function till a rollback was effected. Raising anti-government slogans,they chanted: jo sarkar nikammi hai,woh sarkar badalni hai we have to change the inefficient government.

Earlier,Mukherjees Budget speech started with a minor disruption,as Akali Dal MPs,led by Harsimrat Kaur,raised the issue of ex-Congress MP Sajjan Kumars disappearance. For some time,the House was quiet while Mukherjees announcement of farm credit at 5 per cent rate to farmers paying their loans on time was welcomed with thumping of desks by the Treasury benches.

The Opposition walkout that followed took the steam out of the Treasury benches,with very few MPs coming forward to congratulate Mukherjee after the Budget speech. He made a quiet exit from behind the Speakers chair while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi left via a different door. The Congress also cancelled its scheduled press conference after the Budget.