After weeks of discussions, opposition parties on Tuesday unanimously decided that former Union minister Yashwant Sinha will be the opposition’s common candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Sinha’s name cropped up after Sharad Pawar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah were out of the race.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar said, “We are going to file nominations for the presidential election on June 27 at 11.30 am.”
13 opposition parties, including Congress, TMC and Samajwadi Party, met at the Parliament House today for a meeting called by Pawar to decide on the consensus candidate for the presidential election and agreed on Sinha’s name.
Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, Trinamool Congress’s Abhishek Banerjee, DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury and CPI’s D Raja were among those who attended the meeting. Five regional parties that are considered non-aligned – TRS, BJD. AAP, SAD and YSRCP – stay away. These parties had also stayed away from the June 15 meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.
The opposition issued a statement appealing to the BJP and its allies to support Sinha. “We appeal to the BJP, its allies to support Yashwant Sinha as President so that we can elect a deserving ‘President’ unopposed,” the opposition said.
Mamata Banerjee congratulated Sinha on becoming the opposition’s unanimous candidate for the presidential election and called him a man of “great honour and skill”.
“I would like to congratulate Shri @YashwantSinha on becoming the unanimous candidate supported by all progressive opposition parties for the upcoming Presidential election. A man of great respect and acumen, who will surely uphold the values that our great nation represents!” he tweeted.
I want to congratulate Mr. @YashwantSinha On becoming a unanimous candidate supported by all progressive opposition parties for the upcoming presidential election.
A man of great respect and acumen, who will surely uphold the values that our great nation represents!
, Mamata Banerjee (Ammata official) 21 June 2022
Expressing similar sentiments, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee said, “Heartfelt congratulations to @YashwantSinha ji for being selected as the joint opposition candidate for the upcoming presidential elections. It is my firm belief that for all the progressive parties who share the same vision for our nation, there could not have been a better option than this!”
Talking to news agency ANI, he further said, “We are honored that Yashwant Sinha has been nominated by the unified opposition, he was associated with TMC for a long time. We need to put aside our differences. We need someone like that.” Who will act as the guardian of the Indian Constitution.
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