Presidential Polls: Ex-union minister Yashwant Sinha emerges as candidate for Opposition

Former union minister Yashwant Sinha was announced as the consensus presidential candidate of 13 opposition parties for the upcoming presidential polls on Tuesday.

The decision comes after some of the major political parties including Congress, TMC and Samajwadi Party met earlier today to discuss the issue, sources told PTI.

Opposition leaders, who gathered at the Parliament annexe for the meeting convened by NCP chief Sharad Pawar to decide on a consensus candidate for the presidential election, agreed on Sinha's name, they said. An announcement to this effect is likely to be made soon, they said.


His name came up after Pawar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah opted out of the race.

The parties that attended the meeting include the Congress, NCP, TMC, CPI, CPI-M, Samajwadi Party, National Conference, AIMIM, RJD and AIUDF.

Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, TMC's Abhishek Banerjee, DMK's Tiruchi Siva, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and CPI's D Raja were among those who participated in the meeting.

Five regional parties considered non aligned- TRS, BJD. AAP, SAD and YSRCP- stayed away. These parties had also stayed away from the June 15 meeting convened by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.