Mamata Banerjee to sit on dharna at Patna for demonetisation rollback

Banerjee has planned to hold protests in different parts of the country to force a rollback

Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will sit on a dharna in Patna on November 30 to demand rollback of the Centre's demonetisation decision, TMC vice-president Mukul Roy said on Friday.

"Mamata Banerjee will sit on a dharna at Gardanibagh in Patna on November 30 for rollback of the demonetisation decision," Roy told reporters here.

He exuded confidence that representatives of many parties would join the TMC's dharna in Patna.

Earlier in the day, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar said he had a talk with Banerjee on demonetisation.

Former JD(U) president Sharad Yadav had joined the TMC supremo at a sit-in at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

"She had spoken to me before going to Rashtrapati Bhawan and I had pointed to her that even the President has supported demonetisation," Kumar said about his parleys with Mamata Banerjee.

Asked about Mamata Banerjee's remark that his stand on demonetisation was due to some political compulsion, the Bihar Chief Minister dismissed it.

"What majboori (compulsion) do I have? Is expressing one's viewpoint a majboori?... I always speak with the strength of what I feel is right," he said.

Kumar said he supported scrapping of high denomination notes to fight black money and was against any roll back of the decision, but had criticised the "poor arrangement" to carry the drive.

Banerjee, who is at the forefront in the agitation against scrapping of high denomination currencies by the Centre, has planned to hold protests in different parts of the country to force a rollback.

After the Jantar Mantar agitation in Delhi, Banerjee would sit on a dharna at Lucknow on November 29 and next day in Patna, Roy said adding, he would talk to leaders of other parties and invite them to join the sit-in.