Trinamool Congress
Former BJP leader and Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha

Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha on March 13 joined the Trinamool Congress ahead of the West Bengal Assembly election.

The 83-year-old former senior BJP leader’s joining the Trinamool Congress is a positive development for the party that had to deal with the resignation of many of its leaders and cadres in the past few months.

Sinha joined his new party at the Trinamool Bhawan in Kolkata, where party leaders Derek O Brien, Sudip Bandopadhyay and Subrata Mukherjee were present.

The veteran leader had quit the BJP in 2018, also met Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

“The country is facing an unprecedented situation today. The strength of democracy lays in the strength of its institutions. All these institutions, including the judiciary, have become weak now,” a report quoted Sinha as saying.

Sinha also took the opportunity to compare the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government with the Narendra Modi-led government at the centre.

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“There is no one to stop the government’s wrong deeds. The BJP during Atalji’s time believed in consensus but today’s government believes in crushing and conquering. The Akalis, the BJD have left the BJP,” Sinha said.

Sinha also said that the election commission is no longer a neutral body today.

Sinha is a former IAS officer, joined politics in 1984 with the Janata Party and later the BJP.

He became the Union finance minister in Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar led government in November 1990.

His second tenure was from, December 1998 and July 2002 under Prime Minister Vajpayee and also served as India’s foreign minister till May 2004.

Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee said, “We are proud to have Yashwant Sinha in our party.”