'Democracy under threat' Yashwant Sinha quits BJP

NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader and former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, who has been trenchant in his criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, on Saturday announced that he was snapping his links with the BJP and launching a countrywide campaign to save the democracy.

Sinha, one of the strongest critics of the government, alleged that there was a "threat" to democracy under the present dispensation.

"I am announcing here from this stage to end my long time relation with the Bharatiya Janata Party," he said while addressing the first meeting of Rashtra Manch, founded by him.

Eighty-year-old Sinha, who had joined the BJP in the mid-90s, said "Aaj se mera BJP ke saath rishta samapt ho gaya. Main apna sambandh viched kar raha hun BJP se. Main BJP se khud ko alag kar raha hun (From today my relation with BJP is over. I'm severing my ties with the party...)."

He said that from now he will try to unite all non-BJP parties, "I will not join any political party and will have nothing to do with party-politics."

"I am not an aspirant for any top post and I am making it clear here that I am not at all interested to seek any post," he added.

Sinha, who was Finance Minister and External Affairs Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, attended the meeting of the Rashtra Manch along with BJP MP Satrughan Sinha, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Congress leader Renuka Choudhary and AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh.

The BJP said it was not surprised by his decision as it was clear from his opinions and actions that he had been acting at the "behest of the Congress".

The BJP said Sinha's conduct had been improper. "It was clear from his comments and writing that he was no longer in the BJP. These opinions could not be of a BJP leader and he was working at the behest of the Congress.

"The BJP gave him a lot of respect but his conduct was improper," BJP's media head Anil Baluni said.

The Congress, meanwhile, took a swipe at the BJP, saying all honest senior leaders are being forced to take 'sanyas' in the saffron party.

"It seems in BJP all honest senior leaders above 75 are being forced to take sanyas; except those who have the qualification of being former #JailBirds," Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted.

A bureaucrat-turned politician, Sinha had joined the BJP in the early 1990's after a split in the Janata Dal and became its national spokesperson in June 1996. He served as Union Finance and External Affairs Minister under Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

He did not contest 2014 Parliamentary poll and his son Jayant Sinha won from the Hazaribagh seat in Jharkhand on a BJP ticket. Jayant Sinha is Union minister of State for Civil Aviation in the Narendra Modi government at present.

Sinha had likened the present situation to that which prevailed 70 years ago when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, on this day and said democracy and its institutions were under attack.

Again, earlier this week he had written an open letter to BJP MPs asking them to challenge the leadership before the next elections so that correctives could be taken.