Nearly three years after he quit the BJP, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha on Saturday embarked on a new political journey by joining the Trinamool Congress.
Sinha, who will turn 84 in November, joined the Trinamool at the party's headquarters in Kolkata in the presence of state panchayat and rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee, Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien and Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay.
Inducting him into the Trinamool, Subrata said Yashwant Sinha would give "grand leadership" to the party. Subrata declared the Trinamool Congress was the only alternative to the BJP. Subrata added that party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was injured earlier this week, would have been present at the induction of Yashwant Sinha if she were fit.
Speaking after his induction, Sinha was quoted by ANI as saying, “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.”
"BJP during Atal Ji's time believed in consensus but today's government believes in crushing & conquering. Akalis, BJD have left the BJP. Today, who is standing with BJP?" asked Sinha. Sinha claimed he was prompted to join the Trinamool after Mamata Banerjee was injured in Nandigram, an incident that the Trinamool alleged was an attack. "The tipping point was the attack on Mamataji in Nandigram. It was the moment of decision to join TMC and support Mamataji," Sinha said.
Sinha had served as Union minister for finance in the Chandra Shekar government (1990) and then minister for finance and external affairs in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee dispensation. Sinha was an 1960-batch IAS officer, who resigned from the service in 1984 to take up politics by joining the Janata Dal. Sinha switched over to the BJP in 1993.
Sinha, a prominent figure in the BJP, was perceived to have been sidelined in the Narendra Modi era. Sinha had been critical of many policies of the Modi government.
In January 2019, he was among a handful of 'dissident' BJP leaders who attended a mega rally in Kolkata of opposition leaders organised by Mamata Banerjee.
