Yashwant Sinha bids goodbye to BJP, announces ‘sanyas’ from party politics

Patna, Apr 21: Former Finance Minister, senior party leader and a confirmed ‘Modi-hater’ Yashwant Sinha Saturday announced ‘sanyas’ from party politics and declared that he is quitting the BJP.

Sinha announced his decision at an event attended by Congress, TMC and other parties in Patna today. Sinha had been at the forefront of the critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the recent days. The anti-Modi front included senior party leaders like Sinha, Arun Shourie, Shatrughna Sinha and others who were very vocal in their criticism of Prime Minister Modi and his policies.

Sinha who organised the non-BJP opposition parties in an event in Patna today slammed the Modi government alleging that democracy was under threat in this regime.

The senior leader, holding the Prime Minister responsible for the current impasse in the parliament, reminded him of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s commitment as PM to the parliament. “Did the current PM even try to reach out to the opposition parties to resolve the impasse?”, asked Sinha.

He alleged that the parliament was not allowed to function in view of the no-faith motion brought in by the opposition against the Modi government.

Sinha had announced that he would convene a meeting of all non-BJP parties in Patna. The parties and their leaders who attended the meeting included Renuka Chaudhary of Congress, Tej Pratap Yadav of RJD, rebel BJP leader Shatrughna Sinha, Ghanshyam Tiwari of SP, TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi, RLD leader Jayant Choudhary and AAP’s Sanjay Sinh and Uday Narayan Chaudhary.

Sinha, who was finance minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet and received a strong criticism from none other than late Dattopant Thengdi, the founder of BMS, for his faulty economic policies, has been vocal against the Modi government and even urged senior leaders like L K Advani and M M Joshi to break their silence and speak against the policies of the Prime Minister.

That these senior stalwarts did not pay any attention to Sinha’s appeal is a different matter. Even the BJP also ignored his appeal to the party veterans and MPs. Sinha has already floated a National Forum, a apolitical front, the party leaders are keeping ‘safe distance’ as a strategy.

Sinha had convened this event under the banner of ‘Rashtra Manch’ a platform launched by Yashwant Sinha and thespian Shatrughna Sinha ‘Shotgun’.