Time for Opp to sink differences, unite for bigger cause: Yashwant
Amid a steady outflow of senior leaders from the Trinamool Congress, former Union Finance Minister and ex-BJP leader Yashwant Sinha joined Mamata Banerjee’s party on Saturday saying the tipping point for him to join the TMC was the “attack” on the Bengal Chief Minister at Nandigram.
Sinha said Mamata is one of the few visible faces in the country trying to stop the BJP from “crushing and conquering” the Opposition and the time has come when the democratic-minded parties of the country will have to take a decision to sink differences and unite for a bigger cause.
The 83-year-old veteran IAS officer-turned politician, who left the BJP in 2018, said he is joining the Trinamool at a crucial juncture when “the country is facing an unprecedented situation…” adding the democratic institutions like “the judiciary have become weak now.”
Praising the Chief Minister whom he met at her residence before joining her party, Sinha said he always knew her as a fighter who as a Cabinet Minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government and offered herself as a hostage during the Kandahar crisis when Pakistani terrorists had hijacked an Indian Airlines aircraft.
The former Union Minister who once handled the External Affairs joined his new party at the Trinamool Bhawan in the presence of senior leaders Derek O’Brien, Sudip Bandopadhyay, and Subrata Mukherjee.
Sinha said there is qualitatively difference between the NDA Government led by Vajpayee and the one being run today.
“The BJP, during Atal’s time, believed in consensus. But today’s Government believes in crushing and conquering. The Akalis and the BJD have left the BJP. Today, who is standing with BJP?” he asked.
“Atal built a national alliance. He did not want to weaken allies and take their space. This is a serious fight across the country. It’s not just a political fight. It’s a fight to save democracy,” he said, adding “there is no one to stop the government’s (Centre’s) wrongdoing”.
On the roll of the Election Commission’s role vis-a-vis the upcoming elections he said “… with a lot of responsibility that the Election Commission is no longer a neutral body.”
Sinha’s joining the TMC is likely to be seen as a prized catch — at least symbolically — for the ruling outfit at a time when a bevy of Trinamool leaders including some of Banerjee’s trusted lieutenants like Suvendu Adhikari, Rajib Banerjee et al jumping on to the saffron bandwagon ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, the Congress has decided to send its star campaigners to campaign for the Left Front led grand alliance in Bengal. The list of 30-star campaigners includes Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, Sachin Pilot among others. The list had been presented to the Secretary of the Election Commission Pradesh Congress sources said.
Congress is a partner in the Left Front led grand alliance that includes the Indian Secular Front of Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui.
The list of other campaigners for the Congress includes Rajasthan, Punjab and Chhattisgarh Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot, Captain Amarinder Singh and Bhupesh Baghel, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, former cricketers Navjot Singh Sidhu and Mohammad Azharuddin, former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, former Union Ministers Salman Khurshid, Jitin Prasada, party spokespersons Randeep Singh Surjewala, Pawan Khera; Abhijit Mukherjee etc.
The Congress party will be contesting the assembly elections in the State of West Bengal with the Left parties and the Indian Secular Front (ISF).
On whether all these leaders would come to Bengal for campaigning the PCC sources said the national leaders’ schedules would be decided by the national leadership.
Sunday, 14 March 2021 | Saugar Sengupta | Kolkata
