Yashwant Sinha, ex-Union minister, is joint opposition's presidential candidate

Yashwant Sinha, a civil servant-turned politician, has served as union minister in the governments led by Chandra Shekhar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Former union minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday was named as the joint opposition candidate for the presidential polls.

The decision to name the 84-year-old leader as the presidential candidate was announced by a meeting of the opposition leaders in the national capital.

Yashwant Sinha, a civil servant-turned politician, has served as union minister in the governments led by Chandra Shekhar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Sinha's name came up after Pawar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah opted out of the race.

Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha has been announced as the joint opposition candidate for presidential polls.(HT Photo)

"We are going to file the nomination for the Presidential elections on 27th June at 11.30 am," Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said.

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.

(With PTI inputs)