New Delhi, June 21, 2022 (PPI-OT):Yashwant Sinha, a former Indian Minister, was today named the joint opposition candidate for the post of Indian President. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to announce its pick for the polls to be held in July. Opposition leaders, who gathered at the Parliament annexe for the meeting convened by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief, Sharad Pawar, unanimously agreed on Sinha’s name, as per a report by NDTV.

“In the forthcoming Presidential elections, we have decided to elect a common candidate and stop the Modi government from doing further damage. At a subsequent meeting held today we have chosen Yashwant Sinha as a common candidate. We appeal to all political parties to vote for Yashwant Sinha,” said Jairam Ramesh, Congress’s communication chief, reading from a joint statement by the opposition.

The joint statement appealed to the BJP and its allies to support Sinha. A committee has been formed to steer Sinha’s campaign. “We regret Modi government made no serious effort to have consensus on a presidential candidate,” said Ramesh, as per the report. Reading out the joint statement, he added, as per NDTV, that the unity of opposition parties forged for presidential poll will be further consolidated in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, the BJP parliamentary board on Tuesday named Droupadi Murmu, a tribal leader of the party from Odisha, as the ruling National Democratic Alliance’s candidate for the presidential election. BJP president J P Nadda announced her name at a press conference following a meeting of the party top brass. Murmu (64), a former Jharkhand governor, will be the first tribal woman to occupy the top constitutional post if she is elected. The process to elect a new president began on 15 June. The last date for filing of nominations is 29 June. The polls, if necessary, will be held on 18 July.

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