Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran leader LK Advani has described his party colleague Yashwant Sinha as the right person to become the chief minister of Jharkhand after Assembly elections due in this year.
"What I feel is that when he (Yaswant Sinha) is getting support and respect from all BJP stalwarts, time has come Sinha should respect the feeling of BJP leaders, not only from Jharkhand, but also in the country and come out of jail," PTI quoted Advani.
Advani visited Sinha in the Hazaribagh Central Jail in Jharkhand on Tuesday, 17 June. The latter has been jailed for an alleged assault on a government official of the Jharkhand State Electricity Board in Hazaribagh branch.
He was arrested two weeks ago for allegedly instigating BJP workers to tie-up the Board officer, while the party was agitating against power problems being faced by the people, especially in villages. Along with Sinha, several other BJP activists were arrested in that agitation after their alleged assault on the Board officer.
BJP, in alliance with NDA partner parties, has captured power at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now the party is said to have sidelined its senior leaders like Advani, Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi. While Advani held several key ministerial positions including the deputy prime minister, Sinha was the finance minister in the previous BJP-led NDA governments.
After the arrest, Sinha turned down the offer of seeking bail in the assault case and preferred to go to jail.
Advani said that Sinha can lead the agitation against power crisis and corruption in Jharkhand after obtaining bail. He termed the Sinha-launched agitation as a historic one and explained that Sinha deserves all praise and support for fulfilling the cause of poor villagers.
"It is very significant for Jharkhand where no concrete development work had ever taken place earlier. Had this type of 'andolan' (agitation) been taken up by the BJP, then the picture of this state would have been different," Advani added.
Advani said that after the historic 2014 poll verdict in India, Jharkhand also required good governance and able leadership and Sinha is capable of leading the state.
Former chief minister of the state Arjun Munda and BJP state president Ravindra Rai accompanied Advani to jail.
