‘Atal Vichar Manch’: Yashwant Sinha launches political party based on ideologies of ex-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Former External Affairs and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on Sunday launched a new political party based on the ideologies of ex-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The political party — 'Atal Vichar Manch’ — was launched in Jharkhand's Hazaribag. The proposal to float the new party was discussed during a meeting at Atal Sewa Kendra in Hazaribag in August.

Sinha said that as it is a political party, it is obvious that Atal Vichar Manch will contest all elections.

The party has been launched ahead of the Jharkhand assembly elections later this year.

Yashwant Sinha's political tenure

— Sinha served as the Principal Secretary to then Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur in 1977.

— Sinha had resigned from the IAS in 1984 and plunged into politics after getting influenced by Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan.

— Sinha was a cabinet minister in Vajpayee’s government.

— He won the Hazaribag Lok Sabha seat in 1998, 1999, and 2009.

— In 2004 he lost to CPI candidate Bhuvaneshwar Mehta.

— In 2014, the BJP nominated his eldest son, Jayant Sinha, for the Hazaribag seat.

— In the recent Lok Sabha elections, Jayant Sinha was replaced by Manish Jaiswal who won the seat by a margin of 2.76 lakh votes.

— In 2021, Sinha, a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi regime, had joined Trinamool Congress.

Assembly polls in 81-member Legislative Assembly are due at the end of this year. The state is currently ruled by the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance, which ousted the NDA from power in the 2019 elections. The Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to announce the dates.

In the 2020 assembly election the JMM won 30 seats and the Congress won 16 seats. In the recent Lok Sabha election BJP had won the largest number of seats with 8 wins, the JMM won 3 sats and the Congresss 2.