NEW DELHI: India's Congress-led coalition government may have earned a short reprieve from the unrelenting pressure of its communist allies by unveiling a budget that outlines plans for $6 billion in social spending.

Ever since the Congress came to power with the support of the communist parties last May, the left has been at loggerheads with the ruling coalition on a range of issues from privatization to foreign investment in key sectors of the economy.

The communists bitterly opposed moves to increase foreign investment caps in telecom and insurance and stepped up pressure ahead of the budget on Monday, warning the government not to sell stakes in state-run firms or increase foreign investment limits in domestic banks.

The left - which won a record 60 seats in the 545-member parliament in national polls last May - had also been demanding the government spend more on rural development, education, employment and health.

Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram delivered on some of the left's demands by promising to plough funds into rural infrastructure and provide 250 billion rupees ($5.71 billion) of extra money for the ailing health and education sectors.

In another proposal apparently meant to appease the left, the budget also did not set a target for stake sales in government firms. "It is politically clever budget. It does not seriously ruffle communist feathers but also does not disturb the economic boom that has begun," political analyst Prem Shankar Jha said on Tuesday.

The leftists appeared fairly satisfied. "Our mark is on this budget and that is why one sees more emphasis on the social sector. This shows our tough negotiations with the government have worked - to an extent," said Communist Party of India leader D. Raja.

Communists leaders say the head of the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, has taken on board the left's concerns on the social sector and the rural poor and restrained the reformist instincts of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram.

"There is an overlap between our concerns and that of Mrs Gandhi. This has helped in talking to the government," Raja said. Gandhi led the Congress alliance to power in a surprise result in last May's election, riding on the back of millions of rural poor.

But the Congress-led government, headed by the reformist Singh, depends on communist parties for support. While the left cheered plans to increase social sector spending, it also urged the government to revisit its budget proposal to consider foreign direct investment (FDI) in mining and pension funds.

"The budget proposals represent a positive shift as far as employment generation, development of infrastructure, especially in rural areas, and expenditure in social sector are concerned," Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Prakash Karat wrote in The Times of India. -Reuters