BJP workers slow to take positives of note ban, people realised merits: Naidu

BHARATIYA JANATA Party workers may have been slow in taking the positive aspects of demonetisation to the masses but people “started realising that there must be something good in the whole exercise”, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said on Saturday.

“This should be taken note of by all of us - party workers did not fully take and explain the idea of note ban to the public. Luckily, we got support from places we did not expect,’’ Naidu said.

Interacting with BJP leaders and party members in Hyderabad, Naidu said the Congress and communist parties started opposing the decision to scrap high-value currency. “Then people started realising that there must be something good in the whole exercise, as they believed that Prime Minister Modi will always do the needful,” he said.

Stating that the chief ministers of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar supported the move to demonetise high-value currency, Naidu said, “You (opposition parties) opposed it. You do not know what you talk.”

Naidu, who was in Hyderabad to participate in functions organised by the BJP’S Telangana unit to celebrate the party’s victory in Maharashtra municipal polls, said BJP bagged eight of 10 municipal corporations in the state despite contesting without ally Shiv Sena for the first time in 25 years. Added to the impressive performance in Odisha panchayat polls, this is a clear message that people are fully stand behind Prime Minister Modi and his drive against black money and corruption, he said.

Naidu said, “In Odisha, where we contested without any alliance with the Biju Janata Dal, the BJP won nine Zilla Parishad seats. The BJP is expected to give a tough competition to the ruling party in Odisha...and even come to power. We are also working towards making BJP a strong force in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.”

All three states are scheduled to go to the polls in 2019 - with the General Election.