Yashwant Sinha, once a strong leader of RSS and BJP, has been chosen by the opposition as its candidate in the presidential election. Opposition leaders agreed on his name in a meeting held to decide on the candidate for the presidential election. Sinha’s name cropped up after Pawar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah were eliminated from the race for the post of President.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on behalf of the united opposition that the Modi government did not make any serious effort to build a consensus on the candidate for the presidential election. Because of this, the joint opposition is making Yashwant Sinha its candidate.
13 opposition parties including Congress, TMC and SP agreed to name Yashwant Sinha, who was a power full minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, as the opposition candidate. Yashwant Sinha has been unanimously elected as the candidate of the opposition parties for the presidential election, a joint statement said. During this, Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh, Trinamool’s Abhishek Banerjee, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury and CPI’s D Raja were present.
NCP, CPI, CPI(M), National Conference, AIMIM, RJD and AIUDF also participated in the meeting. Five regional parties, including TRS, BJD, AAP, Shiroman Akali Dal and YSRCP, stayed away from the meeting. These parties are not being considered in any faction (Opposition and BJP). These parties also stayed away from the June 15 meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Journey from IAS to Strong Politician
Yashwant Sinha was the leader of Trinamool. Now he has resigned from there. He has been a strong minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He held important ministries like foreign affairs and finance. Yashwant Sinha has been an IAS. Originally from Bihar, Sinha joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1960. He resigned from the job in 1984 and joined active politics as a member of the Janata Party.
When Janata Dal was formed in 1989, he was appointed its General Secretary. He also served as finance minister in Chandrashekhar’s cabinet from November 1990 to June 1991. Yashwant Sinha became the national spokesperson of the BJP in June 1996. In March 1998, the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee made him the Finance Minister. In the Lok Sabha, he was elected from Hazaribagh in Bihar.
His disillusionment with the BJP came when he was marginalized at the beginning of the Narendra Modi era. He was not given a Lok Sabha ticket citing the age of 70. His son Jayant Sinha was fielded from Hazaribagh, his traditional seat. Jayant was also made a Union Minister in Modi’s first government. But this time he was dropped. After vocal criticism of the Modi government for a long time, he sided with Mamata Banerjee before the West Bengal assembly elections. But when he became a candidate for the presidential election, he resigned from the Trinamool. Now he is ready for the big mission.