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News Desk: Former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha joined the Trinamool Congress on Saturday, days after he criticised the alleged attack on chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the state’s Nandigram. Sinha was inducted into the ruling TMC, which has seen a number of its leaders joining the BJP recently, in Kolkata in the presence of party leaders including Derek O’Brien.
On his decision to join TMC ahead of the assembly elections in West Bengal, the former Union minister said, “The tipping point was the attack on Mamata Ji in Nandigram. It was the moment of decision to join the TMC and support Mamata Ji.” “The country is facing an unprecedented situation today. The strength of democracy lies in the strength of the institutions of democracy. All these institutions including the judiciary have become weak now,” he was quoted as saying.
He added that the BJP under the leadership of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee believed in consensus but “today’s government believes in crushing and conquering. Akalis and the BJD have left the BJP. Today, who is standing with BJP?” he asked.
Days before joining the TMC, Sinha criticised his former party over the alleged attack on Banerjee. “Shame on BJP. Instead of sympathising with Mamata injured in an attack they are making fun of it,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “The battle for Bengal is the battle for India. The voters in Bengal will vote for the future of India in this election,” he also wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
Sinha quit the BJP amid differences with the party’s leadership in 2018. He served as the Union finance minister twice – once in the Chandra Sekhar cabinet in 1990 and then again under Vajpayee. He was also the foreign minister in the Vajpayee cabinet. His son Jayant Sinha is a BJP lawmaker and represents Hazaribagh in Jharkhand.
Sinha’s discontent with the BJP reign was also visible during the Bihar assembly elections held in November and December last year. He had announced in July 2020 that he would work for a new political alternative in the state to replace the Nitish Kumar government, which was formed in coalition with the BJP, due to its “utter failure on multiple fronts”. He had said he was in the fray to change the “stage-managed narrative of 15 years versus 15 years.” His United Democratic Alliance UDA was reportedly in talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to provide voters with another alternative to voters in Bihar.
