Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha files nomination for Presidential poll

NEW DELHI: Opposition's Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha filed his nomination papers at the Parliament here on Monday for the July 18 election.
Sinha, who recently quit the Trinamool Congress (TMC) before his name was announced by a joint opposition on June 21, handed over four sets of nomination papers to Rajya Sabha secretary general P C Mody, the returning officer for the Presidential election.
He was accompanied by top opposition leaders, including NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Congress's Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, DMK's A Raja and NC's Farooq Abdullah among others when he submitted his nomination papers.
A last moment support came from Telangana's ruling TRS on Monday when it said it would support the candidature of joint opposition nominee Sinha in the Presidential election. The party's working president and state IT, industries minister K T Rama Rao was present, along with TRS MPs, when Sinha filed his nomination for the top post.

"President of @trspartyonline Sri KCR Garu has decided to extend support to the candidature of Sri @YashwantSinha Ji in the election for President of India...," Rama Rao, son of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, tweeted.

Party sources on Monday said the TRS is supporting Sinha's candidature as he is the nominee of opposition parties and that they vehemently opposed BJP, even as they had supported the NDA in the election of president and vice president earlier.
This time the NDA nominee is former Jharkhand governor Droupadi Murmu who filed her nomination papers last week.

Among other opposition leaders present during Sinha's nomination process were Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, TMC's Abhishek Banerjee and Saugata Roy, DMK's Tiruchi Siva, CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury, Rashtriya Lok Dal's Jayant Chaudhary, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Misa Bharti, Revolutionary Socialist Party's N K Premchandran, Indian Union Muslim League's Mohammed Bashir and NCP's Praful Patel.
However, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which was part of the opposition grouping that selected Sinha as their common candidate, was not represented as the party is yet to decide on whom to support in the presidential poll. The JMM was veering towards Murmu, a tribal leader of Odisha from the Santhal community.
After filing the nomination papers, Sinha paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar at their statues inside Parliament complex.
Rahul said it's not a fight between two individuals, but one between two ideologies.
Earlier on Friday, Sinha wrote to the opposition parties, thanking them for choosing him unanimously as their common Presidential candidate and assured them that he will conscientiously uphold, without fear or favour, the basic values and guiding ideals of the Constitution.
On Sunday, he had targeted the BJP-led NDA’s nomination, saying it would be a catastrophe if “we had another 'rubber stamp' at Rashtrapati Bhavan”.
“Elevating one person does not elevate the entire community,” Sinha had said referring to the BJP-led NDA fielding a tribal candidate for the Presidential poll.
Some opposition parties such as YSRCP and BSP, however, have already declared support for Murmu.
Sinha, a former bureaucrat and a Union minister during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, is likely to launch his campaign from June 28 from Chennai in Tamil Nadu and will cover the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka as well during his first round of campaigning.
Sinha has promised to raise his voice for farmers, workers, unemployed youth, women and all marginalised sections of society if he wins the election.
(With inputs from agencies)