Tamil Nadu budget session: BJP stages walk out over rupee symbol row

The Bharatiya Janata Party and other opposition parties walked out of the Tamil Nadu assembly during the state Budget 2025-26 marking a protest against the recent move by DMK government to replace the rupee symbol in its budget logo.

One of the MLAs from the BJP wore a black dress in the assembly as a sign of protest before eventually walking out.

“The walkout is on two issues. The first is that the ED has stated the financial irregularities of estimating thousands of crores... This government has lost its credibility in presenting its budget today (March 14),” she said

A political slugfest began after MK Stalin-led Tamil Nadu government replaced the rupee symbol with a Tamil alphabet amid the controversy surrounding the union government’s three-language policy imposition.

“Yesterday, the CM posted the removal of the rupee symbol. He was very specific about using the Tamil symbol. Of course, we are using the Tamil symbol but he intentionally, in a planned way, is ignoring or disrespecting the national symbol. That is our concern,” said the MLA.

"The elected government takes an oath of the Constitution for respect towards national integrity. We are against the disrespect for all of that,” she was quoted as saying.

BJP floor leader Nainar Nagendran said that his party had walked out of the state assembly because of the state government’s decision not to use the rupee's national symbol as the Budget logo.

He argued that the symbol represents India and is known worldwide.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called the change an attempt to "promote secessionist sentiments under the guise of regional pride," while Annamalai accused the DMK of undermining national unity by removing the official rupee symbol from the budget.

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) also walked out of the assembly and demanded the resignation of the DMK government.

However, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government has defended and pointed out historical precedent in Tamil linguistic usage.