Yashwant Sinha resigns from BJP
Former union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha, 80, a consistent critic of the Narendra Modi government, finally announced his exit from the party and the launch of a movement to save democracy.
“I am taking ‘sanyas’ from party politics,” Sinha said at a meeting organized in Patna by the Rashtra Manch, a non-political national forum he and party colleague Shatrughan Sinha launched in January to discuss issues important to the nation. “I am not going to be a member of any other political party,” Sinha added.
The event was attended by Shatrughan Sinha, Congress leader Renuka Choudhary, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and others. “Democracy is in danger. We need to ponder over the country’s situation or else the nation will not forgive us for keeping silent on (the) all-round deterioration,” Sinha said.
The BJP said Sinha’s announcement was nosurprise.
“The BJP gave him respect, position and an identity,” said Anil Baluni, the head of the BJP’s media cell and a Rajya Sabha member. Baluni added that the part had been seeing Sinha’s “articles, statements and views on different subjects over the last several months” and that these looked more like those of a Congress member than a BJP one.
Sinha couldn’t be reached for comment.
Sinha, a bureaucrat-turnedpolitician, became a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon after the BJP’s resounding victory in 2014.
His son Jayant Sinha is currently the junior minister for civil aviation in the Modi government, but BJP leaders say that there might not be an immediate bearing on the son’s position in the government after his father’s decision. Yashwant Sinha had vacated his Hazaribag Lok Sabha seat for Jayant Sinha in the 2014 election.
NEWDELHI/PATNA: