Two days before the nomination deadline for the Presidential election, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has backed the joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. While announcing the party's decision today, Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao said he would represent TRS at the nomination.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after Telangana Chief Minister and TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, who had bonded with Mamata Banerjee over their common goal of defeating the BJP, had opted out of the big meeting called by her to discuss a joint strategy for the Presidential election, raising strong objections to the Congress being invited. "There is no question of sharing any platform with the Congress," KCR had said.
"President of @trspartyonline Sri KCR Garu has decided to extend support to the candidature of Sri @YashwantSinha Ji in the election for President of India
Along with our Members of Parliament, I will be representing the TRS at the nomination today," KT Rama Rao tweeted today.
TRS had also objected to the "method of trying to put up an opposition Presidential candidate".
"Even otherwise, TRS is not in agreement with this method of trying to put up an opposition Presidential candidate. In this case, the candidate was already chosen, and the candidate's opinion was taken, after which the meeting was called. Why was it done this way? The right procedure would have been to hold meetings, arrive at a consensus, take the candidate's approval, and then announce the name after a meeting," the party had said.
Yashwant Sinha, who has said that he will be "more constitutional" if elected as President than the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Draupadi Murmu, will file his nomination today. He has also said that while they do not have any "personal fight" with Ms Murmu, the election is "a battle of issues to save the Constitution of India".
Trinamool Congress will be represented by Abhishek Banerjee, Saugat Ray, and MLA Tapas Roy at the nomination. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is also in Delhi and will be part of the event.
Yashwant Sinha was declared Presidential candidate by opposition parties last week. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, and former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi had declined to be presidential nominees of opposition parties.
While the NDA candidate is most likely to win, the opposition camp is hoping to put up a respectable fight. Sharad Pawar today said if one looked at the arithmetic for the Presidential election, the situation was not as bad as it was made out to be, and the opposition parties will have to make concerted efforts to put up a good fight.
The ruling party on its own has about 49% of the electoral college and to elect the President, one needs to cross the 50% mark.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and a host of opposition leaders are likely to be present in Parliament House today when Yashwant Sinha will submit his nomination papers for the presidential election.
The last date for filing nominations is June 29, and the elections will be held on July 18.
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