Bihar: Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha seeks JD(U)’s support

PATNA: Opposition’s presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha on Friday invoked his Bihari identity and appealed to the lawmakers to vote for him in national interest, as well as to ward off the lurking dangers to the country’s practice of democracy, and to also prevent the misuse of institutions like CBI, ED and IT department.
Sinha urged Bihar CM and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar to ensure that his party’s MLAs also voted for him in the name of Bihari identity, as Odisha CM and BJD leader Navin Patnaik has extended support to the ruling combine’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, since she belonged to his state, while the Shiv Sena had supported the then presidential candidate Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, because she hailed from Maharashtra.
Sinha also disclosed that after being selected as the opposition’s presidential candidate, he, in his bid to solicit votes of all, made telephone calls to all, including Nitish. “I repeatedly phoned him, but probably because my status is very low, he did not talk to me,” Sinha said, adding he was not “fighting a battle against the central government, but also against the misuse of institutions.”
Sinha was in Patna to solicit votes of the opposition MLAs and also of the ruling Bihar NDA combine comprising the BJP and JD(U). Representatives of six political parties, including the RJD, three Left parties and the Congress which have announced their support to Sinha on July 18, attended the meeting.
“All the opposition MLAs in Bihar are united in their support to Sinha and they will vote for him,” leader of opposition in state assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said. TMC MP Shatrughan Sinha was also present at the function.