Presidential polls: Yashwant Sinha, joint candidate for Opposition

NEW DELHI: Yashwant Sinha, the former Union Minister has been declared as the candidate for presidential polls by 13 opposition parties which included the Congress, the TMC and the Samajwadi Party who met in Delhi on Tuesday to discuss the same.

Opposition leaders met at the Parliament annexe, in a meeting convened by Sharad Pawar, NCP president who said that Sinha's name was approved by opposition leaders as a candidate for the presidency.

Sinha's name came up after Pawar, Gopal Krishna Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah withdrew from the contest.

The meeting was attended by Congress, NCP, TMC, CPI, CPI-M, Samajwadi Party, National Conference, AIMIM, RJD and AIUDF among others.

The meeting was attended by Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh of the Congress, Abhishek Banerjee of the TMC, Tiruchi Siva of the DMK, Sitaram Yechury of the CPI-M and D Raja of the CPI and others.

Five non-allied regional parties TRS, BJD, AAP, SAD and YSRCP did not attend the meeting.

These parties had also stayed away from the June 15 meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Yashwant Sinha had said earlier today that to work for the larger national cause of Opposition unity, he would "step aside" from the TMC. "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," Sinha said in a tweet.

Source - PTI