Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party had failed to reach out to the masses and explain the positive side of demonetisation, reported PTI. “Our party workers’ weakness is that on note ban or demonetisation, we could not transmit it [the idea] to the required levels,” he said.

However, Naidu said they found support from the chief ministers of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana despite the Opposition criticising the move. “You [Opposition parties] opposed it. You do not know what you talk,” he said while addressing party workers in Hyderabad. But, the people had realised there were benefits from the whole exercise as “they believed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will always do the needful”, Naidu said.

The gathering in Hyderabad was organised by the Telangana BJP unit to celebrate the party’s victory in the Maharashtra civic polls. Naidu said the BJP had bagged eight of ten municipal corporations seats in Maharashtra and nine Zilla Parishad seats in Odisha without any alliance. “This is a clear message that people are standing behind PM Modi and his drive against black money and corruption,” he said, according to The Indian Express.