Oppn parties form committee to steer Sinha's campaign in presidential polls

Opposition parties have formed an 11-member campaign committee to steer the nationwide campaign of their presidential poll candidate Yashwant Sinha.

The 11 members include Jairam Ramesh from Congress, Tiruchi Siva from the DMK, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy from the TMC, Sitaram Yechury from CPI(M), Ramgopal Yadav from the Samajwadi Party, Praful Patel from NCP, Ranjit Reddy from TRS, Manoj Jha from RJD, D Raja CPI and Sudheendra Kulkarni from Civil Society.

The committee will also have a nominee from Shiv Sena, which is battling a political crisis in Maharashtra.

Yashwant Sinha filed his nomination papers on Monday.

He said later that the numbers could change between now and July 18 when voting will be held in the presidential elections. The BJP-led NDA has fielded former Jharkhand Governor Droupdai Murmu as its candidate.

"You don't go to a fight thinking that you will always emerge victorious. You go into the fight because you believe in the fight itself. So for me, the fight is more important. I would like to tell you that as far as the number is concerned, it is a developing situation. There will be many changes between today and the 18th of July. Let us not go by the number today. What appears today may not be the situation on July 18," Sinha told ANI.

Sinha also highlighted that he cannot imagine Aam Aadmi Party voting for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"I cannot imagine AAP voting for the BJP. The choice in the selection is stark. I don't belong to any political party. I resigned before the Trinamool Congress (TMC) before the Opposition made me its candidate. On the other hand, you have a candidate strongly supporting the BJP. Whosoever is the voter in the situation will have to choose between the BJP on one hand and a person who does not belong to any party," he said.