Why should I quit BJP, let the party throw me out: Yashwant Sinha

BJP leader Yashwant Sinha attends a panel discussion on an analysis of Union Budget 2018-19, in Kolkata on Tuesday. PTI

Dissenting BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said Tuesday he has no intention of quitting the BJP, which can throw him out if it so wants. Sinha said he had been trying for an audience with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had sent numerous letters to him, but failed to elicit a response, something that prompted him to float a political action group called ‘Rashtra Manch’.

He said one of the tasks before the Manch was to ensure that the NDA government’s policies are aligned with the BJP’s election manifesto. “Why should I quit the BJP? I had toiled hard during 2004-14 when the UPA was in power. Let the party throw me out if it wants,” Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here on the Union Budget for 2018-19.

Sinha, who served as the finance minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet, said the policies of the present NDA government were not in line with what had been promised in the election manifesto. “My protest is to bring those back on track along the lines of the election manifesto of the BJP. I have been protesting for the last four years and this has culminated in the formation of the platform Rashtra Manch,” Sinha said. The Manch, he said, is a broad-based platform with people from many political parties and farmers’ organisations.