Patna, Apr. 21 (Agencies): Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha on Saturday announced that he was quitting the Bharatiya Janata Party and party politics, and would now work on “saving democracy in the country”.

Yashwant, who has become a sharp critic of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said he would not join any other political party.

”I am taking 'sanyas' from party politics,” he announced at a meeting here…I am not going to be a member of any other political party.” Yashwant had said Wednesday he would make a “political announcement” on Saturday.

On January 30, Yashwant and former Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha, another disgruntled BJP leader, had formed the ‘Rashtra Manch’ or National Front. Shatrughan, who represents Patna Sahib in Parliament, had alleged that all meetings of the BJP take place with a set agenda and no one has a say in the party.

Yashwant, 80, one of the old guard ignored by Modi, has been criticising the government on almost all fronts, from the Union budget to the farmers’ crisis, from Modi’s silence on the Unnao and Kathua gang-rapes to the currency crisis earlier this week.

An unusual spurt in demand for currency had led to many ATMs and banks running out of cash in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, poll-bound Karnataka and some other states.

“It is a poor currency distribution management,” Yashwant had told a television channel, blaming the Reserve Bank of India as well as the government.