Hazaribagh (Jharkhand): BJP veteran L K Advani today met party colleague Yashwant Sinha in jail here and asked him to secure bail and lead the party in the Jharkhand Assembly elections later this year, describing him as the “right person” for the chief minister's post. 86-year-old Advani drove to the Hazaribagh Central Jail to meet Sinha, who was arrested two weeks back for ordering BJP workers to tie up an Electricity Board official in Hazaribagh.
Both Advani as also Sinha, who has held important portfolios as Finance and External Affairs Minister in the previous NDA regime, are seen as part of the “sidelined” old guard that also includes veterans like Murli Manohar Joshi and erstwhile senior leader Jaswant Singh. Sinha did not run for election this time.
His son, Jayant, contested and won this parliamentary seat. Emerging after his meeting with Sinha, Advani said the Jharkhand leader “is the right person to be chief minister after the Assembly elections later this year”.
“What I feel is that when he 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,” Advani told reporters after his two-hour visit to the prison.
Advani said Sinha should thereafter lead the ongoing agitation against power crisis and ‘corruption' in the GM's office in the Hazaribagh area of the electricity board.
“Yashwant Sinha has launched a historic agitation in support of small villages ... I appreciate the stand taken by him for fulfilling the cause of poor villagers and he deserves all praise and support.
“Prior to this agitation, probably no other BJP leader in the state has ever launched such a vital movement in Jharkhand,” Advani said.
“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,” he claimed.
Asked whether Sinha had launched the agitation to remain active in state politics, Advani replied, “Why not?
“He is capable of leading Jharkhand after the Assembly elections and the right person to become the next chief minister of state, which requires good governance and able leadership particularly after the historic 2014 poll verdict in the country.”
Advani was accompanied by former chief minister Arjun Munda and state president Ravindra Rai. Sinha is in jail in connection with alleged assault of a senior government official on June two.
He has been in judicial remand from June 3 after he and several other BJP activists were arrested in connection with an alleged assault of a senior government official during a party demonstration near the Jharkhand State Electricity Board's Hazaribagh branch.
Advani also visited the ‘State Cell' and offered tributes to Jai Prakash Narayan and other freedom fighterss.
