Left, Trinamool gear up for strike showdown

NEW DELHI: The Left Front is intent on making its 12-hour West Bengal bandh on Monday to protest demonetisation a success, while the Trinamool Congress-led state government has vowed to foil it. The state finance department has issued a circular stating that all employees would be required to attend office on Monday and Tuesday, and exceptions would be made only in case of bereavement, maternity leave, hospitalisation and other ‘genuine reasons’.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has said, “We oppose bandhs. We will take out a protest march (against demonetisation) on Monday.”

Over 3,000 police personnel would be deployed in the metropolis on Monday to tackle any untoward incident, said Supratim Sarkar, Kolkata police additional commissioner of police (III).

Justifying the shutdown, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said the strike call was necessary to register protest against demonetisation which caused sufferings to the people.

State Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury said his party would extend moral support to the strike called by the Left parties.

In Kerala, ruling Left Democratic Front has called a dawn-to-dusk shutdown to denounce demonetisation, which has hit the co-operative sector in the state.

In Tripura, the opposition parties would oppose the dawn-to-dusk strike called by the Left Front. The BJP campaigned throughout the state on Sunday and pitched the merits of demonetisation, while appealing to people to make the strike unsuccessful.

In Tamil Nadu, protests will largely be conducted by the DMK, as well as the CPI, CPI (M), and the Congress. DMK leader M Karunanidhi issued a statement saying that the Dravidian major plans to protest “outside central government offices in all districts of Tamil Nadu”.

Incidentally, the ruling AIADMK — whose leader, chief minister Jayalalithaa, is yet to make a statement on the demonetisation scheme — has decided to join the nationwide protest.

The AIADMK’S Rajya Sabha member, A Navaneethakrishnan, said the party was opposing the implementation of demonetisation because “it is causing inconvenience to rural people”.

In Assam, Congress workers have scheduled a protest rally at Guwahati’s iconic Dighalipukhuri area at 11am. The protest call against demonetisation is not expected to have any impact in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

(With inputs from Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Agartala, Chennai, Guwahati)