Patna, March 12: Chief minister Nitish Kumar has reasons to smile at the BJP's spectacular victory in Uttar Pradesh and not because of political speculation over the JDU returning to the NDA.

On Saturday, Nitish avoided journalists for most of the day. In the evening, however, he issued a statement through a press release, making it clear that he was right about demonetisation. "There was no need for Opposition parties to strongly oppose demonetisation. The poor sections welcomed it and saw it as a move against the rich. However, most political parties ignored this factor," he said.

"Nitishji was the only Opposition leader who understood the social implications of demonetisation," JDU spokesperson Neeraj Kumar remarked. "When he took a different view on the topic, leaders of other parties misinterpreted his stand. There is a general perception at the ground level that the rich had black money and Modi undertook the move to flush it out. In UP, anti-BJP forces campaigned against demonetisation and got isolated from the down trodden and poor."

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation on November 8, 2016, chief minister Nitish Kumar was among the few none-BJP leaders who strongly supported it at the risk of angering anti-BJP forces.

The RJD's Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and his own minister and state Congress chief Ashok Choudhary flayed Nitish for his stand. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee dubbed Nitish a gaddar (Traitor). But Nitish stood his ground, except for saying that demonetisation could have been better managed and that the Prime Minister should go a step further and unearth benaami property.

When the attacks against Nitish, for his stand on demonetisation, got louder, the JDU declared it would review its stand after December 31, 2016. However, the party did not reverse its decision.

In contrast, the RJD went all out against demonetisation. It held statewide protests from which the JDU stayed away. Lalu announced he would hold an-all party mega rally at Gandhi Maidan against demonetisation after the UP Assembly elections and openly expressed hope that Nitish would, by then, see the merit of their protest and switch sides and join the rally.

"After the UP election results nobody in the RJD is talking about the proposed rally. The realisation that they had got it wrong - at least politically - appears to have set in," a senior RJD leader remarked.

Nitish faced stiff resistance not only from his allies, but also from within.

Former JDU president Sharad Yadav made critical remarks about demonetisation despite the support expressed by Nitish.

"All of them appeared to have lost sight of the ground reality, said a JDU leader. "Nitish ji refused to believe people were agitated against demonetisation. Had there been anger, he said, people would have hit the roads and targeted banks. That did not happen."

The party leader stressed that Nitish's stand on demonetisation has been vindicated by the Assembly poll results in Uttar Pradesh where the BJP bagged 312 of the 403 seats that went to the polls.