Capital Gains

With her demonetisation protests, Mamata Banerjee has her sight on leading an anti-BJP front in 2019.

- Rabi Banerjee

A week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared his demonetisation policy on November 8, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee landed in Delhi. The heavy smog aside, what made her uncomfortable there was the silence of political parties on her appeal to join a protest march to the Rashtrapati Bhavan. She eventually found support in the Aam Aadmi Party, the National Conference and the Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP. Though her MPs had rung up chief ministers of most states, only Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was part of the delegation that submitted a memorandum to the president seeking a rollback of the demonetisation scheme.

Mamata then moved her protest to Parliament, trying to unite the opposition against the Union government in the two houses. But it was easier said than done. A senior Trinamool leader was sent to Patna to meet Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. He, however, was not given an appointment. A desperate Mamata then hinted that she would have no issues in aligning with the left. She also decided to call a truce with the Congress, which had aligned with the left for the West Bengal assembly elections early this year. As Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi came on board, the left, too, joined the protests, but not before making it amply clear that the cooperation would be restricted to Parliament. Mamata also spoke to Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, harping on how demonetisation could hurt the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh polls. Both the parties decided to fall in line, with the Janata Dal (United), too, joining them in Parliament.