Presidential elections 2022: Yashwant Sinha files nomination, Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar present

New Delhi, Jun 27: Yashwant Sinha, a former Union Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government and the joint opposition candidate for President polls filed his nominations on Monday.

The presidential election would be held on July 18 to elect a successor to incumbent Ram Nath Kovind and the result would be out on July 21.

Born on 6 November 1937, Yashwant Sinha is a former Indian administrator, politician and a former Minister of Finance (1990-1991 under Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and March 1998 - July 2002 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) and Minister of External Affairs (July 2002 - May 2004).

He was a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party before he quit the party on 21 April 2018.

He joined All India Trinamool Congress on 13 March 2021 and he left All India Trinamool Congress on 21 June 2022 for being the joint opposition Presidential Candidate of India against BJP on Indian Presidential Election 2022.
In 2015, he was awarded Officier de la Légion d'Honneur, the highest civilian distinction of France.

Yashwant Sinha had joined active politics as a member of the Janata Party after resigning from the IAS in 1984. He had been appointed the party's all-India general secretary in 1986 and was elected a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1988. When the Janata Dal was formed in 1989, Sinha, a founding member, was appointed the party's general secretary. He later joined the BJP and held important portfolios in the Vajpayee government.

Sinha's name came up after Pawar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah declined the opposition offer to be their joint candidate for the top post. Their names were proposed during the meetings of opposition parties on the issue.