Arvind
Kejriwal
-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in power in Delhi and Punjab, has decided
to support Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the upcoming presidential
polls. The announcement was made by Sanjay Singh, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP.

Sanjay Singh said,
“We have respect for (NDA candidate) Droupadi Murmu but we will support
Yashwant Sinhaji.” The announcement was made following an AAP political advisory
committee meeting. Currently, the Aam Aadmi Party is the only political party
in the country to have governments in two states with the exception of the
Congress and the BJP. AAP has 10 Rajya Sabha MPs from the two states, including
three from Delhi.

In terms of people
in legislative assemblies, AAP has 92 MLAs in Punjab, 62 in Delhi and two in
Goa, making a total of 156 MLAs.

Yashwant Sinha, a
former bureaucrat-turned-politician who was with the BJP for a long time before
breaking ranks and joining Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) is the opposition’s
consensus candidate.

Also Read | Who is Yashwant Sinha, Opposition’s pick for India’s next President

Sinha’s nomination
as the opposition’s presidential candidate came after the nomination was
rejected by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, former West
Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and National Conference leader Farooq
Abdullah.

Also Read | In Droupadi Murmu, BJP finds tribal face to follow Dalit president

India’s
presidential election contest will be between Yashwant Sinha and BJP’s
candidate Droupadi Murmu. Murmu, a tribal leader from Odisha, rose through the
ranks from being a councillor to the only governor of Jharkhand to be able to
successfully complete a full term. As the numbers stack up, Murmu seems to be
headed for a win. If that happens, India is going to have its first Adivasi
president of India.

The presidential
polls will be conducted on Monday, July 18 and votes will be counted on July
21. Murmu, already bolstered by the BJP behemoth, has the support of several regional
parties, including Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Andhra Pradesh’s YSR
Congress, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Punjab’s Shiromani Akali Dal
(SAD) and the Shiv Sena.