New Delhi, April 21: Months after voicing his concern at the way the BJP-led government was functioning, Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on Saturday announced that he is quitting the party.  While addressing an event in Patna today, Singh said, "Today I am taking 'sanyas' from any kind of party politics, today I am ending all ties with the BJP". BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha and Congress Renuka Chodhary share the stage with Sinha at the event.

Sinha, who has floated an apolitical front to attack the Modi government held an event with opposition parties in Patna to make a "political announcement". Earlier, there were reports that he declined to share details of the impending exercise, saying he will disclose it on Saturday.

"It will be a political announcement," said the former Union minister, who has turned a trenchant critic of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre but has not quit the BJP yet.  Among the ones present at the gathering are leaders from the Congress, the RJD besides another disgruntled BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha. Leaders of other parties like AAP, the Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, the Rashtriya Lok Dal are also attending the meeting in Patna.

To recall, Singh has been the external affairs minister under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ( 2002-04) and finance minister in the same government from 1998-2002 . It must be noted that his son Jayant Sinha is the minister of State for Civil Aviation in Narendra Modi's cabinet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 21, 2018 01:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).