New Delhi, Nov. 30: Janata Dal United veteran Sharad Yadav criticised the demonetisation decision in the Rajya Sabha today, prompting finance minister Arun Jaitley to imply that he was going against his party's line.

Sharad's criticism comes in spite of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's repeated endorsement of the cash withdrawal decision. Nitish, also the JDU president, has asked his party not to participate in any protest against the move and even held a meeting of legislators on Monday evening to discuss the benefits of the policy.

In the Rajya Sabha today, Sharad attacked the government as the Opposition demanded obituary references to the soldiers killed in yesterday's terror strike in Jammu's Nagrota as well as to those who died in the bank queues, waiting to exchange old notes or withdraw cash.

"You say that demonetisation is in the interest of the country," Sharad said. "About 90 people - old, young, women - have died in queues."

"Sharadji, please discuss the demonetisation issue within your party first and find out if your party is with you on this issue," Jaitley retorted.

Sharad shot back: "You are talking about my party? I want to know if the Prime Minister is with you. Is anybody listening to you?"

He then claimed there were no differences within the JDU on the subject of demonetisation. "We are not against demonetisation; we are against the destruction and loss caused by demonetisation," the Rajya Sabha member, also Nitish's predecessor as JDU chief, said.

Sharad said it was the tradition of the House to pass a condolence resolution if anybody was martyred. He asked the government why it had not brought an obituary reference to the soldiers killed yesterday.

Jaitley did not answer the question, choosing instead to talk about his equations with the Prime Minister and others in the party. He said the government was ready for a discussion on any issue.

The JDU did not participate in Monday's Opposition protest, held in front of the Gandhi statue at Parliament, against the poor planning that accompanied the demonetisation. But Sharad attended the Opposition meeting on the subject on Tuesday afternoon.