Yashwant Sinha on Monday filed his nomination as the presidential candidate for the July 18 election amid a big show of opposition unity. Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Pawar, and Sitaram Yechury were among the top leaders present in a show of support. This comes just three days after the candidate backed by the National Democratic alliance - Droupadi Murmu - filed her nomination in parliament in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several union ministers.
The opposition leaders - present on Monday - cited "ideology" for their choice of presidential candidate. "We are all unitedly supporting Yashwant Sinha ji. Of course, we are supporting the individual, but the real fight is between two ideologies. One ideology of RSS - anger, hatred and the other of compassion of all the opposition parties who are standing together," said Rahul Gandhi.
Earlier on Monday, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao also extended his support to Sinha, who has served as India's finance and foreign minister in the past. KT Rama Rao, his son and Telangana minister, was in attendance on Monday to back Sinha.
Sinha recently said he would relinquish his responsibilities linked to the Trinamool Congress as opposition declared him as the pick for the post. His name emerged after Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, and Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, turned down the offer to be the opposition's candidates amid hectic round of talks.
Mamata Banerjee was in Delhi recently to attend the opposition meeting that she had called ahead of the presidential elections. The July 18 election has brought leaders cross the party together.
{{/usCountry}}Mamata Banerjee was in Delhi recently to attend the opposition meeting that she had called ahead of the presidential elections. The July 18 election has brought leaders cross the party together.
{{/usCountry}}Her party colleague Saugata Roy on Monday said the West Bengal chief minister has extended full support to Sinha. "It is not a fight between two individuals only, it is a fight between two ideologies - between communalism and secularism and authoritarianism versus democracy. And I think under the circumstances, Yashwant Sinha is the best candidate," Roy said.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)