A year after DeMo, hard to guess which way will voter swing

SHIMLA : Even as these elections take place exactly a year after the announcement of demonetisation, the two major political parties in fray — the Congress and the BJP — are not considering these as a referendum on the note ban. During campaigning, the parties referred to this issue as per convenience.

The Congress has attacked the BJP on demonetisation, with party leaders blaming it for the economic slowdown and the sluggish job creation. The BJP has linked the move to honesty and black money. They have claimed that the move hit the functioning of the black economy and squeezed terror funding.

On the ground, though, the voter sentiment is hard to decipher. “Demonetisation led to trouble for us for three months. We lost customers and the business slowed down significantly. The situation is normal now,” says Hari Prasad, 70, a retailer of Sanjauli in Shimla.

Aneesh Sood, a student at Himachal Pradesh University, says, “The ban did impact our lives for some time, but now we do not even remember if there was any such move.”

Another thread that revolves around demonetisation is that people are still waiting for the Modi government to clarify the benefits of the move.

“There are many views on demonetisation. It is true that it has hurt the economy. The government, though, needs to rise above rhetoric to tell the country its benefits,” says Shiv Prasad, a retailer.