NEW DELHI: Demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes is set to rock the winter session of parliament. The opposition led by Trinamool Congress has not only started a serious exercise to unite all parties to petition the president, it has also submitted a notice in Rajya Sabha for suspension of all business to discuss the demonetisation.
The worry for the government is that most of the parties with sizeable presence in the upper house where the government is in minority have spoken against the move.
While the government has been trying to project the exercise as pro-poor and as a crackdown on black money, the opposition is planning to leverage the hassles faced by the people to brand it as anti-poor and helpful for black money hoarders.
To discuss how the BJP and the ruling National Democratic Alliance or NDA is going to tackle the opposition’s united attack, top BJP leaders – members of the BJP parliamentary executive unit will meet on Monday first to formulate their strategy and then meet NDA partners for a common floor strategy.
The BJP will face a problem on getting its allies on board as demonetisation has also impacted the poll funds of parties like the Shiromani Akali Dal ahead of next year’s assembly polls.
The government has also called for an all-party meet on Tuesday to thrash out a broad agenda of the winter session which starts on November 16.
The government would have to give in to the opposition demands on the issue as dismissing it could derail the government’s attempts to get the opposition’s support on the GST bill.
