Yashwant Sinha, former Union Minister, is Joint Opposition Candidate for Presidential Elections

After weeks of discussion among themselves, Opposition parties on Tuesday unanimously decided that former union minister Yashwant Sinha will be the common candidate of the Opposition for the upcoming Presidential elections. Sinha’s name came up after Sharad Pawar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah opted out of the race.

“We are going to file the nomination for the Presidential elections on June 27 at 11.30 am,” said NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Thirteen opposition parties, including the Congress, the TMC, and the Samajwadi Party, met today at the Parliament building for the meeting convened by Pawar to decide on a consensus candidate for the presidential poll and agreed on Sinha’s name.

Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury, and CPI’s D Raja were among those who participated in the meeting. Five regional parties that are considered non-aligned – TRS, BJD. AAP, SAD, and YSRCP – stayed away. These parties had also stayed away from the June 15 meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.

Issuing a statement, the Opposition has appealed to the BJP and its allies to support Sinha. “We appeal to BJP, its allies to support Yashwant Sinha as prez so we can have a worthy ‘Rashtrapati’ elected unopposed,” the Opposition said.

Mamata Banerjee has congratulated Sinha on becoming the consensus candidate of Opposition for the presidential polls and called him a man of “great honour and acumen”.

“I would like to congratulate Shri @YashwantSinha on becoming the consensus candidate, supported by all progressive opposition parties, for the upcoming Presidential Election. A man of great honour and acumen, who would surely uphold the values that represent our great nation!” she tweeted.

Echoing similar sentiments, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee said, “Heartiest congratulations to @YashwantSinha ji for being chosen as the joint Opposition candidate for the upcoming Presidential Elections. It is my firm belief that for all progressive parties who share the same vision for our nation, there could not have been a better choice!”

Speaking to news agency ANI, he further said, “We are honoured that Yashwant Sinha has been nominated by the unified opposition, he was associated with TMC for a long time. We need to keep our differences aside. We have to find someone who will act as the custodian of the Indian Constitution.”

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