PM Modi, BJP gear up to milk currency ban in UP

After protests against demonetisation caused a washout of the winter session of Parliament, the ruling BJP’s focus has now shifted to poll-bound Uttar Pradesh to firm up its strategy to counter the same issue which will be used by its opponents to corner it.

Without wasting any time before the assembly elections are announced, the BJP leadership is planning for most of the party’s big-ticket programmes for the state at the earliest, given that demonetisation is going to be the main campaign plank against the party by all its main rivals – BSP, SP and Congress.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s eighth public rally since he announced the demonetisation move on November 8, has been scheduled for Lucknow on January 2 where the expectation is that he will make some announcements to provide relief to people suffering under the impact of a cash crunch since the Rs 500 and 1,000 notes were banned abruptly . Before that, Modi is scheduled to visit his constituency Varanasi, where the buzz is that he will make announcements for infrastructure projects worth Rs 2,000 crore, before the Election Commission announces the dates for the polls.