New Delhi, June 21: Various opposition parties including the Congress have declared former minister Yashwant Sinha as joint candidate for presidential elections. The decision was taken in a meeting of opposition parties held in the Parliament House complex on Tuesday.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh announced Sinha’s name at a press conference here. He said the Opposition parties have unanimously decided that Trinamool Congress leader Sinha will be the opposition candidate for the presidential election.
Leaders of various opposition parties including senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D. Raja, Samajwadi Party’s Prof Ramgopal Yadav, DMK’s Trichy Shiva attended the meeting of Opposition parties on Tuesday .
Jairam Ramesh said that in the meeting held on June 15, the secular opposition parties had unanimously decided to elect a general candidate for the presidential election. He said in this sequence, Sinha has been unanimously elected as the candidate.
Sinha had resigned from the post of National Vice President of Trinamool Congress. In a tweet this morning, he said, “I am grateful to Mamata for the honor 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 has been the Foreign Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
