Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented her first budget on March 25, with an accent on social services and capital expenditure. This was the first budget of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in little more than a quarter of a century, making it an important document to look for indications of the direction in which the party intends to proceed in the national capital.

It needs to be noted at the very outset, though, that the emasculation of the Delhi government by the centre, especially over the last decade or so of the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) tenure, makes it a much less significant document than it might otherwise have........

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