Party members of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party and its allies that are also members of parliament, announced on Wednesday night that they shall not take any salary and other allowances that they are eligible for in the Budget session, as no work was conducted during the period due to disruptions by opposition parties. The members of NDA, while accusing Congress party members of disruptive politics, stated that they will take a pay cut for 23 days which were wasted during second phase of Budget session that had been set aside for passing crucial bills in both houses of parliament.

Parliamentary affairs minister Anant Kumar while announcing the decision stated that all MPs’ had given their consent as the “Congress party members were indulging in anti-democratic policies by not allowing critical bills to pass and wasted 23 days of budget session which was a criminal wastage of money paid for by taxpayers”. This accusation was directed at only Congress party though other political parties like TDP, TRS, AIADMK and YSR Congress too had disrupted parliamentary activities due to local issues.

Both the ruling party and opposition have been citing various reasons in blaming each other for the session being a complete washout. During the initial days, Congress party’s MLAs’ had disrupted House proceedings by taking up issues related to banking fraud while political parties from Andhra Pradesh brought no-confidence motions against the government to grant the state “special-category status”. BJP unit’s Delhi chief, Manoj Tiwari had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan expressing his anguish at chaos in parliament and demanded a “no work-no pay” rule for MPs’ that engaged in disruptive politics. According to a Financial Express report, the recent budget session was the most wasteful as out of 22 sittings there was only 25% productivity in Lok Sabha and 35% in Rajya Sabha.