Naidu had inkling of the ban?

Mr. Naidu was among the first and few politicians who had been consistently demanding demonetisation of these two big currency notes.

Did Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had an intuition of abolition of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes or was it a case of Prime Minister Narendra Modi heeding to his request?

Whatever it is, Mr. Naidu was among the first and few politicians who had been consistently demanding demonetisation of these two big currency notes to check black money and cleaning of electoral politics often dominated by distribution of these notes. He had even shot off a letter to Mr. Modi. With Mr. Modi’s big announcement on Tuesday night, Mr. Naidu’s stand appears vindicated.

Expectedly, Mr. Naidu lost no time in welcoming the decision of Mr. Modi. “The initiative will curb black money menace,” he said, while recalling the letter he had written to the Prime Minister on October 12 urging him to withdraw higher denomination of currency.

On October 12, Mr. Naidu was addressing his first press conference from his new office in Interim Government Complex at Velagapudi.

He became bit emotional and said unless these two big notes were banned, flow of black money and buying of votes could not be checked effectively.

‘Politics has become a shelter for corrupt and easy circulation and distribution of these notes has come in handy for them to influence the voters.’