Yashwant Sinha appointed as TMC Vice President, National working committee member

Kolkata, Mar 13: Former union minister Yashwant Sinha, who joined the TMC this week, has been appointed the Vice President of the Mamata Banerjee-led party. He has also been made member of the TMC national working committee.

Sinha will campaign for the TMC and earlier said he was joining Mamata Banerjee to ensure her win in the West Bengal election, which will have national repercussions.

On Saturday, Sinha a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's regime, joined Trinamool Congress days ahead of the high octane West Bengal assembly poll saying the tipping point was the attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Sinha, a senior BJP leader who was a cabinet minister of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, told reporters that democracy is in peril in the country and it is the need of the hour to ensure that TMC wins the poll with a thumping majority.

Sinha was the union finance minister twice - once in the Chandra Sekhar cabinet in 1990 and again in the Vajpayee cabinet. He also held the portfolio of the external affairs ministry in the Vajpayee cabinet. He had served as the principal secretary to the then Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur in 1977. Influenced by Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan Sinha had resigned from the IAS in 1984 and had plunged into politics.