Oppn Presidential Pick Yashwant Sinha Files Nomination; Rahul, Akhilesh Present

Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, and Abhishek Banerjee were among those who accompanied the Opposition's candidate.

The Opposition's presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha filed his nomination for the upcoming election on Monday, 27 June.

(Photo: PTI)

The Opposition's presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha filed his nomination for the upcoming election on Monday, 27 June.

A number of Opposition leaders, including the Congress's Rahul Gandhi, Trinamool Congress's Abhishek Banerjee, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah from the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, RLD's Jayant Sinha, CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury, and TRS leader and Telangana minister KT Rama Rao accompanied him for the filing of the nomination papers at Parliament.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) announced its support for Sinha on Monday morning.

(Photo: PTI)

"It's not a fight between two individuals, it's a fight between two ideologies," Rahul Gandhi told reporters after the nomination.

After submitting his nomination papers, Sinha paid a floral tribute to the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar on Parliament premises.

Sinha said later in the day:

"I'm thankful to all the opposition parties who came together and chose me as their candidate. It's being said I am the 4th choice but I want to say even if I was at the 10th no. I would've accepted because it's a big battle."

Former Union Minister Sinha had joined the TMC last year and was later made the party's vice president. He quit the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2018. He was declared as the Opposition's common candidate for the presidential election on 21 June, hours after he resigned from the TMC.

Voting for the next president will be held on 18 July, while the counting of votes will be held on 21 July.

Sinha will contest against the candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) – Droupadi Murmu.

Meanwhile, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi said on Monday that party legislators will support Yashwant Sinha's nomination.

He tweeted, "AIMIM legislators will be voting for opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the Presidential Elections. Mr Sinha spoke to me on call earlier as well."

Droupadi Murmu's Nomination

Droupadi Murmu had filed her nomination for the presidential election on Friday, 24 June.

A host of ruling party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda accompanied her to the Parliament.

Every set of nominations to a president has to have 50 proposers and 50 seconders among elected representatives.

While PM Modi was Murmu's first proposer, senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, and BJP president JP Nadda were among the other signatories on the nomination papers. Besides the complement of NDA leaders, YSR Congress's Vijaysai Reddy and Biju Janata Dal leader Sasmit Patra, who are not part of the alliance, were also in Parliament to back her nomination.

If elected, the former Jharkhand governor will become the first Scheduled Tribe president and the second-ever woman president of India.