NEW DELHI: Tuesday’s anti-BJP opposition has finally settled Yashwant Sinha as a presidential candidate, describing him as “excellently qualified” to serve as a “defender of the Constitution” and upholding the “secular and democratic character of India”. .
Opposition leaders have been trying to pitch the candidacy of Sinha, who has handled the finance and foreign affairs ministries in Vajpayee-led BJP governments, as a case of determination to push the current BJP government. in a position of mystery.
and cut NDA votes in Presidential polls.
Before that, the opposition’s three preferred options – Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Pawar and Gopal Krishna Gandhi – refused to take the field.
Yashwant Sinha, who was named the opposition Presidential candidate, was an IAS officer before he retired from service to join the Janata Party. Then he emigrated to BJP. Although one of the strong quotas for Narendra Modi was announced as a Prime Minister candidate before the 2014 election, Sinha later became a critic of the Prime Minister and the BJP before quitting the party and becoming active in politics. Sinha, however, returned to the arena to participate in the Trinamool Congress on the eve of the 2020 Bengal polls, with West Bengal Minister Mamata Banerjee appointing him as one of her party’s vice presidents. .
Although the name Sinha was among the options as a presidential candidate from the start, the anti-BJP parties seemed more comfortable with other names. On Tuesday, however, it was the very reasons that Sinha’s name initially caused detriment in the opposition group – his decades-long relationship with the BJP and then
with the TMC – seemed to vanish into nothingness as the opposition found it had few options and less time to identify a candidate against the NDA candidate nominated in the presidential polls .
Despite these unanimous assertions, it remains clear that the conditions for Sinha’s candidacy – that he should resign from the TMC and run for office as an Independent – were never imposed. placed for NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar or Farooq Abdullah of NC.
The opposition is still short of numbers compared to the ruling NDA, which lacks only a majority in the electorate that will elect the next President. However, the opposition hopes to make up for the shortfall with the optics of an ideological war and feels that a clear Sinha and given his current hostility to the BJP fit the bill.
There is also a faint hope that some players like JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar will break away from the governing coalition, just as he did in the 2012 presidential polls, when he voted in favor of UPA-nominated candidate Pranab Mukherjee. Opposition leaders are expected to have speed-dial fence custodians when they begin campaigning for Sinha.
Opposition leaders have been trying to pitch the candidacy of Sinha, who has handled the finance and foreign affairs ministries in Vajpayee-led BJP governments, as a case of determination to push the current BJP government. in a position of mystery.
and cut NDA votes in Presidential polls.
Before that, the opposition’s three preferred options – Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Pawar and Gopal Krishna Gandhi – refused to take the field.
Yashwant Sinha, who was named the opposition Presidential candidate, was an IAS officer before he retired from service to join the Janata Party. Then he emigrated to BJP. Although one of the strong quotas for Narendra Modi was announced as a Prime Minister candidate before the 2014 election, Sinha later became a critic of the Prime Minister and the BJP before quitting the party and becoming active in politics. Sinha, however, returned to the arena to participate in the Trinamool Congress on the eve of the 2020 Bengal polls, with West Bengal Minister Mamata Banerjee appointing him as one of her party’s vice presidents. .
Although the name Sinha was among the options as a presidential candidate from the start, the anti-BJP parties seemed more comfortable with other names. On Tuesday, however, it was the very reasons that Sinha’s name initially caused detriment in the opposition group – his decades-long relationship with the BJP and then
with the TMC – seemed to vanish into nothingness as the opposition found it had few options and less time to identify a candidate against the NDA candidate nominated in the presidential polls .
Despite these unanimous assertions, it remains clear that the conditions for Sinha’s candidacy – that he should resign from the TMC and run for office as an Independent – were never imposed. placed for NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar or Farooq Abdullah of NC.
The opposition is still short of numbers compared to the ruling NDA, which lacks only a majority in the electorate that will elect the next President. However, the opposition hopes to make up for the shortfall with the optics of an ideological war and feels that a clear Sinha and given his current hostility to the BJP fit the bill.
There is also a faint hope that some players like JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar will break away from the governing coalition, just as he did in the 2012 presidential polls, when he voted in favor of UPA-nominated candidate Pranab Mukherjee. Opposition leaders are expected to have speed-dial fence custodians when they begin campaigning for Sinha.
