Nitish Kumar's party had gone against the opposition tide in its support to the currency ban.
Bihar's ruling Janata Dal (United) appears to be in no hurry to reconsider its support to the central government's ban on 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. Despite Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's earlier comment that the party will re-evaluate its support after the 50-day cooling off period sought by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the notes ban announcement, the review meeting has been postponed.
Mr Kumar's JD(U) had gone against the opposition tide in its support to the currency ban. Even his alliance partners - Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress - have been vocal against the ban.
RJD chief Lalu Yadav has already announced that on Sunday, his party will organise a rally on this issue. And today, at a programme attended by Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Bihar's IT minister, Congress's Ashok Choudhury questioned the Central government's move to push digital transactions, asking how can people be encouraged to participate in e-transactions when service tax is being levied and most panchayats are without a bank branch.
The JD(U) had announced that it would hold a meeting to review the currency ban after January 14. Now, the party's Bihar unit president Vashishta Narayan Singh has said the meeting will be called after January 24 - coinciding with routine meeting on the birth anniversary of former chief minister Karpoori Thakur Jayanti -- raising questions about the party's stance.
On condition of anonymity, some Congress leaders pointed out that Mr Kumar shouldn't delay announcing his stand. While the Chief Minister earlier used to direct at the President Pranab Mukherjee's support for demonetisation, the move has seemingly since lost favour with him since then, they said, as President Mukherjee said this week that the notes ban "may lead to temporary slowdown of the economy".
Last week, the Chief Minister was seen sharing stage with arch-rival Narendra Modi at Patna's Gandhi Maidan on the occasion of Guru Gobind Singh's birth anniversary. PM Modi had even praised Mr Kumar on his implementation of prohibition.
Mr Kumar has even travelled to almost 20 districts over the last two months and reported he has not seen widespread public resentment over the issue.