AMN
Ahead of West Bengal Assembly elections, ex-Bhartiya Janata Party leader and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha joined Trinamool Congress in Kolkata today. He joined the party in the presence of TMC leaders Derek O Brien, Sudip Bandopadhyay and Subrata Mukherjee at the Trinamool Bhawan in the city. The 83-year-old leader had quit BJP in 2018.
Amid the prevailing tension in the wake of the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar in 1999, Mamata Banerjee, a Union Cabinet Minister then, had offered herself as a hostage in exchange for the passengers of the flight, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said today. Recalling his days with her as a colleague, the former senior BJP leader said the Trinamool chief has been a “fighter” right from the beginning. He joined her party today in Kolkata, having quit the BJP in 2018.
“I have worked with her (Ms Banerjee) under Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee. I can tell you she has been a fighter from early on and she is still a fighter,” he said today.
“I want to tell you today that when the Indian Airlines plane was hijacked to Kandahar, there was a discussion happening in the Cabinet. Mamatji offered to go herself as a hostage on the condition that the Indians are released in exchange. She was ready to make that sacrifice,” he said.
Before joining the Trinamool today in the presence of senior leaders Derek O’Brien, Sudip Bandopadhyay, and Subrata Mukherjee at the party headquarters in Kolkata, he met Ms Banerjee at her residence in the Kalighat locality.
Mr Sinha, a former IAS officer of the 1960 batch, joined politics in 1984, starting off with the Janata Party after quitting government service. He later joined the BJP. Mr Sinha first became Finance Minister in November 1990 and stayed in office till June 1991, serving under Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar.
His second tenure stretched between December 1998 and July 2002 under Prime Minister Vajpayee. From then to May 2004, he was India’s Foreign Minister. His son Jayant Sinha is a BJP member and Parliamentarian from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand.