Nitish Kumar said he will take a stand on the banning of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes and fight black money.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said he has taken a principled stand on the banning of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes as he is convinced that the step will help fight black money while his party hinted it was prepared to stand alone among opposition parties in its support for demonetisation.
"I support demonetisation as I'm convinced that it will help in the fight against black money," Mr Kumar said addressing a function to mark Prohibition Day here.
Mr Kumar's Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) party will also not support Trinamool Congress Chief Mammta Banerjee who is now organising protests in every state capital and coming to Patna next week.
"Is this the first time that I have taken a principled stand which might be politically different from others on an issue on which I'm convinced?" Mr Kumar, who had reminded the media yesterday that he had supported Pranab Mukherjee for President despite being a member of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
"Will those hoarding black money be able to deposit the entire volume in bank accounts? Reserve Bank could issue new notes against a quantity of black money which would not find way to banks during the current drive," he said expressing views on demonetisation raging in national politics.
Mr Kumar, who is also JD(U) National President, laughed at reports which attributed his support to demonetisation to his secret meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah at a farmhouse recently.
"Had the reporter who gave this news taken me to the farmhouse where I met Amit Shah?" he said and lamented over such "baseless news which hitherto was prevalent only in social media platform".
Mr Kumar, who has described the Centre's demonetisation decision as courageous, said in addition to scrapping of higher denomination currencies, attack on benami or proxy-bought properties and prohibition could rid India of black money.