Mamata arrives in Delhi, to step up heat on Modi

Raising the pitch in her fight against Modi government on demonetisation, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived here on  Monday to attend a meeting of opposition parties and a joint press conference on Tuesday along with Congress, DMK, RJD and other parties.

Mamata, who is spearheading the fight against demonetisation, will be part of the joint opposition meeting, TMC sources said.

Banerjee told reporters at the Kolkata airport, “The Congress has called me for the meeting. Let’s see what happens!” She will attend the media briefing at Constitution Club along with other Opposition leaders including representatives from DMK and RJD among others, sources added.

A top TMC leader said while reacting to CPI-M’s pull-out, said, “It is the CPI-M’s internal matter. But we feel that it is for them to decide on which side they are.”

TMC chief will be in the capital for three days and expected to meet several leaders from different political hues during her stay.

We want to highlight the hardships caused due to demonetisation across the country, a senior TMC leader claimed.

TMC is expected to take up 50 key effects of demonetization during the opposition meet, sources said.

The party has been recording all facts and figures since PM Modi announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. There have been 107 deaths in 58 days, the party has all the data regarding the dates, venues and causes of the deaths, sources also added.

TMC sources also confirmed that pertinent stats such as four out of five villages don’t have banks, 95% transactions through debit cards are to withdraw cash, not for buying, and 0.02% of the entire collected money since demonetization is counterfeit, will be raised during the meeting.