Yashwant Sinha has had a long career in public life. The former BJP leader was named as the joint Opposition candidate in the Presidential election which was held in July this year. He lost the high-stakes election to NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu.

From being a fierce critic of the Congress and the Left, Yashwant Sinha has evolved into a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Allliance (NDA) government.

Sinha, a three-time Lok Sabha MP from Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh constituency, was relegated to the sidelines when Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. But his political career had started to decline well before 2014.

After Atal Bihari Vajpayee was ousted from power, Sinha joined the voices demanding Advani’s removal as Leader of Opposition over his praise of Mohammad Ali Jinnah during a visit to Pakistan. Despite being banished from his own party and all the political setbacks, Sinha has not changed as a politician. The seasoned politician is still not afraid to speak his mind.

On his 85th birthday, let us take a look at some of the highlights of Yashwant Sinha’s distinguished career.

Yashwant Sinha made the switch from Indian Administrative Services (IAS) to join active politics by becoming the member of the Janata Party in 1984.

Sinha was chosen as the finance minister by Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar in 1990.

He again became the Union finance minister when BJP-led National Democratic Alliance first came to power in 1998.

As finance minister, he is credited for breaking the colonial-era tradition of presenting Union Budgets in evenings. Sinha also facilitated the rapid construction of highways across India by boosting the funding of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) through a petroleum cess.

After criticising the policies of Narendra Modi and his government for years, Sinha finally quit the BJP on April 21, 2018.

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