President Droupadi Murmu fed the customary 'dahi-cheeni' to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget 2025-26 on Saturday. Sitharaman will present her eighth consecutive Budget.
This Budget marks the 14th consecutive Budget under the Narendra Modi government since 2014, including two interim Budgets presented ahead of the general elections in 2019 and 2024.
She was appointed the finance minister when Modi swept to power again in the 2019 election and presented her maiden Budget on July 5, 2019. She used a red cloth folder enclosed with a string and emblazoned with the national emblem to carry the Budget documents.
Sitharaman wore a white Madhubani-painted saree to present the budget. Interstingly, the saree was gifted to her by Padma Shri awardee Dulari Devi, who had made a request that Sitharaman wear the saree on the day she would present the Union Budget 2025-26.
Earlier, finance ministers in different governments, including her predecessors in the Modi government - Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal- used the standard Budget briefcase.