New Delhi: Joint Opposition candidate for the presidential elections, Yashwant Sinha filed his nomination today in presence of senior leaders of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha’s Secretary General Office. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah were present among others as a show of strength during the nomination.
Senior Congress leader Praful Patel and leader of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM) Sitaram Yechury were also present with other Oppoistion leaders.
As per the Election Commission, the last date for filing nomination is June 29 and the polls will be held on July 18. Votes will be counted and the result will be announced on July 21.
After filing nomination, Sinha will lay wreaths at Gandhi statue and Ambedkar statue after which he will hold a press conference at Vijay Chowk followed by another press conference at Constitutional Club.
Meanwhile earlier in the day, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) announced to extend support to Sinha.
In the electoral fray against Sinha is National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) candidate Droupadi Murmu who has already filed her nomination on June 24.
Yashwant Sinha served as Minister of Finance from 1990 until 1991 under the Prime Ministership of Chandra Shekhar and again from March 1998 to July 2002 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He also served as Minister of External Affairs from July 2002 until May 2004.
He had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2018 and joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) earlier in March last year.