Can Yashwant Sinha break the Bihar jinx?

Nearly two years after he quit the BJP and took ‘voluntary retirement’ from active politics, former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha is gearing up to take a plunge again into the hurly-burly of Bihar politics at the age of 83.

The former BJP leader, who never shared a cordial relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is all set to float a Third Front in Bihar. This front, he says, will be an umbrella comprising of all those forces inimical to the NDA.

“Once I saw these 40 lakh migrants returning to Bihar during the lockdown, I decided I should work for a better Bihar. I will ensure the Nitish Kumar regime is uprooted as he has failed to create job opportunities here,” said Yashwant.

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Incidentally, Yashwant and Nitish were Cabinet colleagues in Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. While Yashwant presented the Union Budget, Nitish presented the Railway Budget during the earlier avatar of the NDA regime headed by Vajpayee. However, the two Socialists are now at loggerheads.

‘EX-FACTOR’

The ruling JD (U) has termed Yashwant’s proposed front as ‘Ex-factor’ comprising those who are ex-MPs and former ministers. The BJP too has taken a dig at its former leader. “All those who have joined hands with Yashwant are tired and retired. However, in a democracy, everyone has a right to see ‘Mungeri Lal ke haseen sapne’ (a Hindi phrase which means: day-dreaming),” the Bihar BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel told Deccan Herald here on Sunday.

Political observers feel that Bihar was always a jinxed State for Yashwant. “Born and brought up here, Yashwant never made Patna his karma-bhoomi. He did contest the 1991 Lok Sabha election from Patna on the ticket of Samajwadi Janata Party (the SJP, headed by former PM Chandrashekhar), but the poll was eventually countermanded.

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He then contested and won as BJP MLA from Hatia (near Ranchi) and became Leader of the Opposition in the undivided Bihar Assembly in 1995. However, he had to resign in 1996 after his name figured in the Jain-Hawala case.

It remains to be seen that the man, who twice won from Hazaribagh (in Jharkhand) Lok Sabha seat, could make a new beginning in Bihar or will come a cropper like many other Third Front experiments,” says political scientist Ajay Kumar.

“Only time will tell whether we are the third, or second or the first front,” said Yashwant, not ruling out his own candidature during the ensuing Bihar Assembly polls.