Former union minister Yashwant Sinha joins TMC

Former Union Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, joined the Trinamool Congress today ahead of the crucial polls in West Bengal.

The 83-year-old, who served as finance minister during the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure as Prime Minister, had quit his earlier party-- the BJP in 2018; after being in political hiatus for several years.

Sinha is known as a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

His joining is seen as a “prize catch” for the Trinamool, which has seen a series of defections across all levels. The party suffered its biggest set-back when its Rajya Sabha MP and former Rail Minister, Dinesh Trivedi quit after speaking against Trinamool’s functioning on the floor of the Parliament.

According to political observers, at least one Rajya Sabha seat has fallen vacant - post the resignation of Trivedi - for which the Trinamool Congress might pitch Sinha, if it comes to power in the state this time.

Two other Rajya Sabha MPs of the party - Manas Bhuniya and Vivek Gupta - have also been named as candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections on Bengal.

Meeting Mamata

Sinha joined the party at the Trinamool Congress’s headquarters in Kolkata, this afternoon, in the presence of Derek O Brien, Sudip Bandopadhyay, and Subrata Mukherjee.

The former finance minister also met West Bengal Chief Minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee at her residence earlier in the day.

Praising Mamata

Sinha called the West Bengal Chief Minister “a fighter” with whom he is “willing to work to save democracy in the country”.

Claiming to reveal an hitherto unknown story, the former Union Finance Minister, said Mamata Banerjee “was willing to become a hostage” and “sacrifice herself” to save lives during the Kandahar plane hijack incident. His claim came 22 years after the incident.

“She offered to become a hostage when terrorists captured a plane and took it to Kandahar. She was ready to sacrifice her life in return for the lives of the hostages in the plane,” Sinha said adding that the tipping point of his joining the Trinamool Congress was the alleged attack on Mamata Banerjee - couple of days back.

“Unprecedented Crises in Country”

Upping his ante against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his functioning style, Sinha maintained “the country is facing an unprecedented situation” with democracy being “weakened” through “weakening of its institutions”, including the judiciary.

“The strength of democracy lies in the strength of the institutions of democracy. All these institutions, including the judiciary, have become weak now,” he said.

“The democratic stature of our republic is in danger. Today, almost every institution of democracy has become weakened and unfortunately, the judiciary system is also among them. There is no one left to check the government’s will. This is the biggest threat to the democracy of our republic,” Sinha added.

According to him, farmers are being neglected by the Government; education & healthcare are going through a “rough phase”

“ Modi is not Atalji”

Sinha praised the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and said “the current BJP (under Modi) is not the same”.

While “Atalji” believed in “conscientious”, the current government believes in a “crush and conquer” mindset.

This mindset has led it to lose all allies, he added further criticising his former party.

“There is a huge difference between Atalji’s party and today’s BJP. Atal Ji used to believe in conscientious and today’s government just want to crush and conquer. Atal Ji made a national coalition to run the country properly, but today’s government don’t have almost any allies. So, this fight has become the fight to save the democracy of the country,” the former Union Minister said.

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