Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician and former Union Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, declared ‘sanyas’ from active politics today. Addressing the Media and supporters in Patna, the veteran BJP leader declared his intention to “take sanyas from party politics.”
He announced, “I’m breaking all my relations with BJP now and I’ll not take any position in the future.”
“I’m not going to join any other political party. I’ll set off a strong movement with all my friends and like-minded people in the country to save democracy. Media too is being suppressed, under pressure, managed from above. How will the country run in such a situation? My heart beats for the country,” he said.
In 2014, after the BJP’s whopping victory, Sinha was marginalised along with other senior leaders including, LK Advani. Many believe this to be a punishment for opposing Narendra Modi being named the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate. Mr Sinha’s son, Jayant Sinha, is a Minister in the present government.
Yashwant Sinha had held the Finance and External Affairs portfolios in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Cabinet between 1998 and 2004.
Disgruntled BJP leader and party MP from Patna Sahib, Shatrughan Sinha, AAP leaders, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh, RJD leader, Tejaswi Yadav, RLD leader, Jayant Chaudhury and others were also present at the convention.
The convention of the newly-floated Rashtriya Manch was held at Sri Krishna Memorial Hall at Patna. Rashtriya Manch is not a political platform, clarified Mr Sinha who had floated the outfit in January 2018.