NEW DELHI : Ahead of the start of Parliament’s Budget session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said people have given their verdict in the Lok Sabha polls and now all political parties must fight together for the country for the next five years.

A day before the presentation of the Union Budget, Prime Minister Modi said the Budget will set the direction for the journey of the next five years and lay the foundation for fulfilling the dream of ‘Viksit Bharat’ in 2047.

Speaking with the media before the start of the session, the Prime Minister also slammed the “negative politics” of some parties and said they used Parliament’s time to hide their failures.  PM Modi also hit out at opposition parties for “trying to scuttle his voice” in Parliament in the last session and said such a tactic has no place in democracy.

Modi said his government is moving forward to implement on the ground the guarantees he has given to the people. “This is the Budget session. The guarantees that I have been giving, we are moving forward to implement those guarantees on the ground,” he said.

“This Budget is an important Budget of the Amrit Kaal. The opportunity of five years that we have, this budget will decide the direction of that journey as well as lay the foundation for fulfilling the dream of Viksit Bharat in 2047,” Modi said.

He also said the Budget session is an important destination in our democracy’s proud journey. A government has come back to power for the third term after 60 years, he said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the Economic Survey 2023-24, along with the statistical appendix in the Lok Sabha. The Economic Survey is an annual document presented by the government ahead of the Union Budget to review the state of the economy.

The document also provides an overview of the short-to-medium-term prospects of the economy. The Economic Survey is prepared by the Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance under the supervision of the chief economic adviser.

The first Economic Survey came into existence in 1950-51 when it used to be a part of the budget documents.  In the 1960s, it was separated from the Union Budget and tabled a day before the presentation of the Budget.  The Union Budget for 2024-25 will be presented by Sitharaman on Tuesday.