Yashwant Sinha resigns from TMC, likely to contest Presidential election

Trinamool Congress (TMC) vice president Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday resigned from all party posts. In an official tweet, he said that he is stepping down for a “greater opposition unity.”

As per sources, he is likely to be pitched in as the presidential candidate from the opposition parties.

Announcing his resignation, Sinha said, “Now a time has come when for a larger national cause I must step aside from the party to work for greater opposition unity.”

On June 20, former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi who was one of the forerunner candidates backed out citing he was not suitable for the role. “I feel there will be others who will do this far better than I. And so, I have requested the leaders to give the opportunity to such a person,” he said in a press release.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi was the third candidate to step down for the Presidential elections after senior politicians Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah stepped down.

Yashanth Sinha, 84, joined TMC in 2018 after being with the Bharatiya Janata Party for over a decade. He was a union minister for finance and external affairs under the leadership of the late Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Yashwant Sinha quit BJP alleging the country’s democracy was a ‘threat’ under the Narendra Modi government.