Advani visits Yashwant Sinha in jail

BJP leader Yashwant Sinha’s insistence on continuing his incarceration in Hazaribagh jail, Jharkhand, invited an endorsement for his future prospects from party patriarch LK Advani on Tuesday.

Advani, along with former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda, visited Sinha in jail and requested him to post bail. Sinha and 54 of his supporters were remanded to judicial custody on June 3. They had been arrested earlier for allegedly assaulting and tying up the general manager of Hazaribagh branch of Jharkhand State Electricity Board, Dhanesh Jha.

BJP leaders Shahnawaz Hussein and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who had visited Sinha in jail last week, have asserted that Sinha was not responsible for the assault on the officer.

In fact, Hussein told Business Line he protected the officer from angry BJP protestors who had been agitating over power cuts that last as long as 10 hours in the State. In the following days, more BJP activists were arrested and remanded to judicial custody.

Sinha has consistently refused to post bail despite senior leaders like party president and Home Minister Rajnath Singh urging him to do it.

The heightened political activity on the part of Sinha, who has not been accommodated in the Union Cabinet, is being perceived in the BJP circles as a “job application”. Besides an expansion in the Union Cabinet, there are other possibilities in the Centre with vacancies coming up in the Planning Commission as well as his projection as chief ministerial candidate in the State. Elections are due in Jharkhand later this year.

Advani seemed to be backing Sinha’s claims when he spoke to reporters outside the Hazaribagh jail. A PTI report from Hazaribagh quoted Advani as saying that Sinha is the ‘right person’ to be the Chief Minister. 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 the State, which requires good governance and able leadership particularly after the historic 2014 poll verdict in the country,” PTI quoted Advani as saying. Advani also requested Sinha to secure bail to lead the ‘historic agitation’ against the power crisis in Jharkhand.

“What I feel is that when he is getting support and respect from everyone in the BJP, he should reciprocate our feelings and come out of jail… He 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. 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 said.

However, BJP sources said Sinha’s bid to stay relevant in politics may invite sympathy in some quarters but the “picture had changed”.