Mamata, Cong praise Yashwant Sinha, joint Oppn candidate for presidential polls

Yashwant Sinha has been named as the joint opposition candidate for the July presidential polls.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday congratulated former union minister Yashwant Sinha for being named as the joint opposition candidate for next month's presidential polls. Calling him a 'man of great honour', the Trinamool Congress boss said Sinha will 'surely uphold the values that represent nation'. "I would like to congratulate Shri Yashwant Sinha on becoming the consensus candidate... supported by all progressive opposition parties... for the upcoming presidential election. (He is) a man of great honour and acumen who would surely uphold the values that represent our great nation!" she tweeted.

Mamata Banerjee (PTI PHOTO.)

Abhishek Banerjee, a Trinamool Lok Sabha MP and the chief minister's nephew, also congratulated Yashwant Sinha. "There could not have been a better choice," he tweeted.

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"Heartiest congratulations to Yashwant Sinha ji for being chosen as the joint Opposition candidate for the upcoming presidential election. It is my firm belief that for all progressive parties who share the same vision for our nation, there could not have been a better choice!" Banerjee wrote.

Speaking to news agency ANI, he also said called himself 'honoured' by Sinha's nomination. "We need to keep our differences aside. We have to find someone who will act as the custodian of the Indian Constitution," he said.

Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge spoke about his party's stand and said it is key for the opposition parties involved in this effort to stay united. "Our stand is that we would back the decision collectively made by all the opposition parties. As Sonia Gandhi has rightly noted, it is imperative to keep the Opposition united in this day and age. We must not break the unity," he told ANI.

Sinha has been named as the joint opposition candidate for the July presidential polls. The decision was announced Tuesday after a meeting last week that was attended by the Congress, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, the Trinamool, the CPI and CPI-M, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, the National Conference, Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, Tejashwai Yadav's RJD and the AIUDF.

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

Five regional parties - Telangan's TRS and Odisha's BJD, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, and Andhra chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSRCP - stayed away.

Sinha's name was taken up after Sharad Pawar, former Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah opted out of the president candidate race.