PM Modi said the AAP was disintegrating, in an apparent reference to the eight former AAP MLAs who quit the party and joined the BJP on Saturday.

The announcement came just before the Delhi polls where BJP is locked in a fierce contest against Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party. Aimed to spur consumer sentiment in general, the tax sops offered were also being seen as an attempt to woo Delhi’s 40 lakh income tax-payers.

As campaigning for elections to the Delhi Assembly entered the last lap, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday highlighted the many “benefits” of the Union Budget presented a day earlier, calling it “the most middle class-friendly Budget in the history of the country”.

Banking on the Budget's tax relief, the BJP seeks to energise Delhi's middle class; the AAP is doing its bit too. But will their outreach mobilise this politically crucial yet disengaged electorate?

The government is trying to boost domestic demand among its vast middle class as food inflation dents disposable income.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has presented an annual budget that focuses on wooing the salaried middle class with tax cuts and spurring economic growth by boosting agriculture and