Why Opposition went ahead with Yashwant Sinha as Presidential candidate

On Wednesday (June 21), former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha was named as the presidential candidate by the joint Opposition in a meeting convened by the NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Delhi.

Sinha, who was the Trinamool Congress (TMC) vice-president resigned from his post saying that he wanted to work for the 'larger national cause'. 

Sinha had joined TMC in March 2021 after parting ways with the BJP in 2018.

In his tweet, he said, 'I am grateful to Mamata Ji 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.'

Soon after his tweet, Sinha's name was announced by Jairam Ramesh, Congress’s communication chief. 

Ramesh also appealed to all the political parties to support the candidature of Sinha so that the country can have a 'worthy Rashtrapati elected unopposed.'

WHY YASHWANT SINHA ?

The joint opposition zeroed in on the name of Sinha after Sharad Pawar, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah and former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi refused to contest the Presidential polls.

In Sinha, the Opposition has a credible face who can fetch votes even the pro-BJP political parties. Once a BJP man and an ardent Atal Bihari Vajpayee loyalist, Sinha stayed with the BJP for more than three decades. 

Till 2014, he also defended PM Narendra Modi saying that the PM doesn't need to apologize for the 2002 Gujarat riots. 

He was in the same group of veteran BJP leaders like Arun Shourie and Shatrugan Sinha who left the party after feeling that they have been sidelined by PM Modi and Amit Shah. 

His political affirmations can help his candidacy. He also can fetch votes from parties YSRCP and the Janata Dal United (JDS), thanks to his Bihar background.

OPPOSITION CONSENSUS: The other reason why the Opposition decided to appoint Sinha as the President candidate is because it brings together Samajwadi Party (SP), TMC, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) (M) and other smaller parties towards a consensus.

Parties like the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Rashtriya Lok Dal and Janata Dal (Secular) are also in support of Sinha’s candidature.
In short, in Sinha, the opposition had a candidate that had consent from all the opposition parties. 

The question now remains as to which side the parties like AAP, TRS, YSRCP and BJD would go.

Meanwhile, the BJP-led NDA has announced the name of Droupadi Murmu, former governor of Jharkhand, as their presidential candidate.

The presidential polls are slated to happen on July 18 and the counting of votes on July 21.