Discarded and disgruntled former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Saturday joined the sinking ship of TMC in West Bengal to go down with CM Mamata Banerjee, whose reign in the Eastern state is running on borrowed times. Sinha joined TMC in presence of MPs Sudip Bandopadhyay, Derek O’ Brien and state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee at the TMC Bhavan in Kolkata. Sinha had served as Union finance minister twice- once in the Chandra Sekhar cabinet in 1990 and then again in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministry. However, soon after joining the divisive party, Sinha started berating his old party.
Kolkata: Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha joins Trinamool Congress, ahead of West Bengal Assembly elections pic.twitter.com/K3s9TQNPlS
— ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2021
“The country is facing an unprecedented situation today. The strength of democracy lies in the strength of the institutions of democracy. All these institutions including the judiciary have become weak now,” said Sinha.
The fact that a ‘has-been’ leader joining TMC has become the talking point for Mamata and her team speaks volumes about the confidence of the party which has seen its several big-ticket leaders ditching the party and switching flanks to BJP. The exodus started with Suvedu Adhikari which later carried on to Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Rajib Banerjee, Vaishali Dalmiya and last but not least, Dinesh Trivedi.
Yashwant Sinha is from the class of former pseudo RW intellectuals like Arun Shourie who were shown their place by the Modi government after coming into power in 2014. Shortly after PM Modi’s accession to the biggest democratic position of India, Sinha became a vocal critic of the Modi government, eventually parting ways with the BJP.
In fact, he has often been too harsh in his criticism of the BJP and has frequently levelled allegations of wrongdoings by PM Modi in the Rafale deal. He had even joined hands with former Union Minister Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan in his relentless efforts to corner the Modi government over the Rafale deal.
Along with Shourie and Bhushan, Sinha targeted PM Modi over the Rafale deal from the beginning, without a shred of evidence to back those claims. Even after the Supreme Court dismissed all petition alleging foul play in the Rafale deal, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie decided to file review pleas, only to see it spectacularly bomb at their faces.
West Bengal is currently the theatre of dreams for the BJP as the party looks to breach the defences of TMC and the left to form a government. However, in the theatre, it is Mamata who is pulling all the weird antics with her shoddy and, at times, unimaginative acting.
More recently, Mamata orchestrated the entire incident of BJP allegedly attacking her and damaging her legs. However, the TMC supremo went from being in plasters to crepe bandages within the span of 24 hours, thereby raising doubts on the entire ruse.
https://twitter.com/Shehzad_Ind/status/1370429138092232704
Mamata Banerjee has been annihilated by BJP even before the eight-phase election begins later this month in the state. The TMC supremo is yet to joust with the reality of her situation. By assimilating a leader like Sinha who has no clout or sway amongst the voters of Bengal is a rookie mistake that Mamata has made out of desperation. Fearing that her empire is slipping away, Mamata is willing to hold out to any piece of relief that brings her some kind of solace in these bleak times.
