Yashwant Sinha To Be Opposition Candidate For Presidential Polls

Presidential Elections 2022: Yashwant Sinha, who had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2018, joined the TMC earlier in March last year.

New Delhi: Former Minister of Finance Yashwant Sinha's name has been proposed as the joint candidate of the opposition parties, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Tuesday. "We (opposition parties) have unanimously decided that Yashwant Sinha will be the common candidate of the Opposition for the Presidential elections," he said.

Significantly, in the last meeting of opposition parties, the name of NCP chief Sharad Pawar was also proposed by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, but Pawar refused to accept the claim. Apart from this, the name of Gopal Krishna Gandhi also came up.

Last week, Union Minister Rajnath Singh had contact with many opposition leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge, and Akhilesh Yadav. BJP President JP Nadda also spoke to many opposition leaders. However, even then no name was put in front of the opposition by the government. Still, no official name has been introduced for the post of President by the ruling BJP.

Sources said that representatives of 13 parties attended this meeting of opposition parties. In this, there were representatives of all parties including Congress, and Trinamool Congress. The opposition said that the President should be elected by consensus. 

Earlier today, Sinha said he was stepping aside from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party to “work for greater opposition unity”. In a tweet, Sinha expressed his gratitude to West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee for the “honour and prestige” she bestowed on him in the party.

“I am grateful to Mamataji for the honour and prestige she bestowed on me in the TMC. Now a time has come when for a larger national cause I must step aside from the party to work for greater opposition unity. I am sure she approves of the step,” he wrote on the micro-blogging platform.

Sinha, who had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2018, joined the TMC earlier in March last year.

The TMC had earlier said it was ready to back party Sinha as the Opposition’s presidential candidate only if he emerged as a consensus choice.