Upendra Kushwaha, who was a part of the Union council of ministers till he resigned in 2018, offered his take on Twitter.
"The Union Budget might be historic for developed states. But for Bihar it is disappointing," tweeted Kushwaha, who heads the parliamentary board of the JD(U).
He added that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has "let the people of Bihar down by turning a deaf year to the demand for special category status".
Kushwaha, who has of late been hitting out at the BJP by his aggressive stance on "denigration" of Emperor Asoka by a Sahitya Akademi Award-winning playwright with alleged links to the saffron party, also added a provocative hashtag to his tweet "desh ke pradhan, Bihar par dein dhyaan".
A predictably peeved BJP hit back.
"If somebody, despite having been a Union minister, expects the budget to announce special category status, one can only pity his ignorance," said state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal, whose spat with Kushwaha keeps making headlines.
"I have said this before and am saying it again that the central share of revenue for Bihar is greater than what a more populous and productive state like Maharashtra is getting. This demonstrates the Modi government's concern for poor states like Bihar," Jaiswal told reporters.
Meanwhile, the sentiment at the Bihar Industries Association (BIA) seemed to be more in sync with that of the chief minister's party which shares power at the Centre.
In an interaction with journalists after the budget was tabled, BIA president Arun Agrawal bemoaned that "no steps was taken for accelerating economic growth in the state which has a per capita income of Rs 45,000, as against the national average of Rs 1.35 lakh".
The association's member and former president Ram Lal Khaitan said "political will" was needed to ensure that the backward state got its due and urged "elected representatives from all parties" to come together and make themselves heard.
The BIA office bearers were also of the view that projects like national highways and Vande Bharat Express trains were insufficient for the state. PTI NAC RMS RMS