Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has joined the Trinamool Congress party in Kolkata ahead of the West Bengal elections.
Speaking to reporters at the TMC Bhavan after joining the party, Sinha said that the BJP during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time believed in consensus but today's government believes in crushing & conquering. "Akalis, BJD have left the BJP. Today, who is standing with BJP?", the new TMC inductee said.
Sinha, who served in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had quit the saffron party in 2018 after having serious differences with the party leadership.
"The country is passing through a strange situation. Our values and principles are in danger.
"The strength of democracy lies in the robustness of its institutions, and all the institutions have been weakened systematically," Sinha said.
His son Jayant Sinha is the BJP MP from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand.
The octogenarian leader pledged support to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her fight against the BJP.
"We welcome Yashwant Sinha to our party. His participation would strengthen our fight against the BJP in the elections," TMC Lok Sabha party leader Sudip Bandopadhyay said.
Sinha had served as Union Finance minister twice- once in the Chandra Sekhar cabinet in 1990 and then again in the Vajpayee ministry.
He also held the finance and external affairs portfolios in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and has been severely critical of the Narendra Modi dispensation's policies and style of functioning for a long time.
(With PTI inputs)