Time has come for a larger national cause: Yashwant Sinha amid President poll buzz

Kolkata, Jun 21: Former union minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday posted a tweet that could intensify the speculation of him being considered as the opposition's candidate for the Presidential elections.

"I am grateful to Mamataji for the honour and prestige she bestowed on me in the TMC. Now a time has come when for a larger national cause I must step aside from the party to work for greater opposition unity. I am sure she approves of the step," tweets Yashwant Sinha.

The announcement comes at a come the Opposition parties are mulling putting up former union minister Yashwant Sinha as a possible joint candidate for the upcoming presidential election.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has received phone calls suggesting the 85-year-old veteran leader's name and she too is now pitching for Sinha as the joint opposition nominee, he said.

Earlier, the names of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi were proposed but all of them declined to stand for the top job.

The NDA which has over 48 per cent of the vote share in the electoral college which votes in a President, is likely to also be able to garner support from some smaller parties including the BJD and may finally muster over 52 per cent votes.

However, the stature of the opposition candidate can ensure a close fight and give some uneasy moments to the ruling camp.

Analysts said putting up Sinha, a former Minister and close confidante of late Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who still enjoys a lot of prestige in political circles, was a strategic move to underline the differences in functioning styles of the BJP government under Vajpayee and that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sinha, a former IAS who joined politics in 1984 to join the Janata Dal, was finance minister in the short-lived Chandra Shekhar government in 1990-91. He later joined the BJP to be a Minister for Finance and later Minister for External Affairs in the Vajpayee government which ruled between 1989-2004.

On June 15, TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had called a meeting to discuss the candidate for the July 18 presidential poll, which was attended by 17 parties, including the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Left parties, and Shiv Sena among others.

The process to elect a new president began on June 15. The last date for filing nominations is June 29. The polls, if necessary, will be held on July 18 and the counting on July 21.