Yashwant Sinha files nomination
SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE
New Delhi: Joint Opposition Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha filed his nomination on Monday, which witnessed the full strength of opposition unity, with the participation of 16 non-NDA parties — Indian National Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, RJD, Samajwadi Party (SP), NCP, TRS, CPI-M, CPI, RSP, NC, VCSK, Shiv Sena, AUDF, RLD and IUML.
Sinha was accompanied by NCP chief and veteran politician Sharad Pawar, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, TMC's Abhishek Banerjee and Saugata Roy, CPI's D Raja, DMK's Tiruch Siva, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Farooq Abdullah from the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, RLD's Jayant Sinha, TRS leader KT Rama Rao and other senior Opposition leaders during his nomination filing to Parliament. Sinha handed over four sets of nomination papers to Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody, who is the returning officer for the Presidential election. Rashtriya Janata Dal's Misa Bharti, Revolutionary Socialist Party's NK Premchandran and Indian Union Muslim League's Mohammed Bashir were also present.
Later, the Opposition leaders jointly addressed a press conference at the Vijay Chowk area, where Rahul Gandhi said: "We support the individual, but the real fight is between two ideologies. One is the ideology of RSS, that of anger, hatred, and the other of compassion of all the Opposition parties who are standing together."
Yashwant Sinha also addressed a press conference after he filed his nomination, at the Constitution Club here, where he mentioned: "I am fighting this election to save India and India's Constitution. This election is not about two people, but between two ideologies... The ruling party is contemptuous of our Constitution which limits executive power to its proper place; their goal is to exercise absolute, unchecked power."
Making a scathing attack on the incumbent BJP-ruled NDA government, Sinha further added: "They (ruling government) do not believe in democracy and it shows. All power is centralised with the Prime Minister... Parliament has been made a rubber stamp. The Cabinet has become a shell. Laws are rushed through the system without any scrutiny or debate."
Sinha, a former Indian administrator, has been the Union Finance minister from November 1990 to June 1991 in Chandra Shekhar's Cabinet. He was also a member of the BJP from 1992 to 2018. He last served as the External Affairs minister from July 2002 to May 2004 in the Vajpayee government. Sinha has been a vocal critic of the Modi government. His disagreement with the Modi government and BJP on several issues led to his resignation from the party in 2018.
While addressing the media, he also confirmed that he had dialled Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his old colleague Rajnath Singh, seeking their support. "I had called the PM but he did not call me back. I also called Rajnathji, but then he was busy, and later when he called me back, I could not speak to him. Later, I called him back, but could not reach him," Sinha said.
He added: "The President has certain responsibilities in the Constitution and it is his responsibility to be a part of the checks and balances... Politics of symbolism are not acceptable. The ruling party wants the office of the President to become another rubber stamp. The President is the custodian of the Constitution. But rulers do not want anyone to tell them." During the media address, after filing his nomination, the 84-year-old veteran politician also added: "Our Constitution has given us the right to freely practice our religion. Nobody can be discriminated against because of their religion. Everyone is equal before the law."
In an official statement, he asserted: "I was Finance minister in Atalji's government which lost a no-confidence motion in 1999 because of one vote. If power was our goal, we would surely have bought that one vote or used government agencies to gain that vote."
Meanwhile, a campaign committee has also been formed to steer his nationwide campaign. The Committee consists of Congress' Jairam Ramesh, DMK's Tiruch Siva, TMC's Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, SP's Ramgopal Yadav, NCP's Praful Patel, Ranjit Reddy of the TRS, RJD's Manoj Sinha, CPI's D Raja, a nominee of Shiv Sena, and Sudheendra Kulkarni, representing the civil society.
Sinha is to commence his nationwide campaign on Tuesday. He is slated to visit Kerala first and the campaign will continue till July 16.
The 4,809-member Electoral College – comprising 776 MPs and 4033 MLAs with a total value of votes pegged at 10,86,431 points – will pick President Ramnath Kovind's successor.
Meanwhile, the BJP-led NDA coalition already holds a formidable 48.9 per cent share in the electoral college and is confident that the minuscule deficit of around 20,000 electoral points to cross the 50 per cent vote share mark will be covered with support from regional outfits such as YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress (YSRCP) and Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD). On the other hand, Mayawati's BSP and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha extended their support to NDA Presidential candidate and former Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu. Significantly, the support of AAP and Nitish Kumar will be important for the joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. The AAP has, so far, stayed away from the Opposition's Presidential poll exercise.
