Ex-UPA Ministers watch Budget presentation from VIP gallery

NEW DELHI: A host of former Union Ministers of the previous UPA government, including Sharad Pawar and Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Sabha MPs and industrialists like Rahul Bajaj, today came to watch the presentation of the maiden budget by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Besides Pawar and Ramesh, former Union Ministers Rajiv Shukla, Ashwani Kumar and T Subbarami Reddy were among those who watched the presentation of the Budget in Lok Sabha from the VIP gallery.

Rajya Sabha members Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Derek O'brien, Vijay Goel, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, V Maitreyan, Ramdas Athawale, Pavan Kumar Varma and Biswajit Daimary were also present in the Lok Sabha VIP gallery.

Two nominated members of Rajya Sabha, Javed Akhtar and H K Dua and former member Shobhana Bhartia were also seen watching the budget presentation.

Another notable visitor in the Lok Sabha gallery was industrialist and former Rajya Sabha member Rahul Bajaj, who was seen enthusiastically taking notes during the presentation of the Budget by Jaitley.