Yashwant to Jayant, why Hazaribagh’s Sinha family haunts BJP despite absence from fray

Days after ex-Union minister Jayant Sinha’s son Aashir Sinha participated in a rally of the Opposition INDIA bloc in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, which sparked a buzz about his joining the Congress, the Sinha family has made news again.

The Jharkhand BJP has issued a show-cause notice to Jayant – the son of former Union minister Yashwant Sinha – for “not taking interest in campaigning” for the party’s candidate in the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha constituency, which voted on May 20.

Sources say that in his reply to the show-cause, Jayant is likely to refute the charges made against him.

A two-term MP from Hazaribagh, who won from the seat in the 2019 polls by over 4.79 lakh votes, he was replaced with local MLA Manish Jaiswal this time. Just before the BJP’s announcement of Jaiswal’s candidature, Jayant said he did not wish to contest as he would like to devote his time to addressing the global climate change issue.

The refusal of ticket to him was a second snub after the denial of a ministerial portfolio to Jayant in the Narendra Modi government 2.0, despite his earlier ministerial stints.

The current polls mark the first time since 1998 that there is no one from the Sinha family in the Hazaribagh fray. Yashwant, a former Union minister from the Vajpayee era-led BJP governments, who some time back crossed over to the Opposition side, announced his support for Congress candidate Jai Prakash Bhai Patel against Jaiswal.

However, Yashwant had denied reports that Aashir, 22, had joined the Congress, noting that he was not even of the age where he could contest elections.

With the BJP now turning the heat on Jayant, asking why he is not doing organisational work and “not even voting”, which the party said was “tarnishing” its image, he might be