Oppn's prez candidate Yashwant Sinha holds 1st campaign strategy meeting

The opposition candidate in the July 18 presidential polls, Yashwant Sinha, held his first campaign strategy meeting on Wednesday at the NCP office here and said a "rubber-stamp president" will not work in the country.

Talking to reporters, Sinha said the presidential election is not an individual battle but a fight for the issues facing the country.

"I am thankful to all the political parties that have given me the opportunity in the presidential polls. I am glad that these parties have given me that credibility. I wish to say that this election is not an individual fight for me. There are issues that the country is facing on which the electoral college has to make a decision," the former Union minister said.

The BJP-led Centre is moving on a road that is not good for the country, youngsters are suffering and now, the "joke" that the government has played on unemployment with the "Agniveer" scheme for military recruitment, the entire country is up in arms, he said.

"The president's post is extremely sensitive and I will not be under pressure from the government," he said.

Sinha will file his nomination for the presidential polls on June 27 and is most likely to begin campaigning from Jharkhand and Bihar.

"We will be going to various places in the country to campaign.... We are formulating a strategy on that. I congratulate Droupadi Murmu, but this is not me against her -- this is an ideological contest. We should not have a rubber-stamp president in the country," he said.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has named Murmu, a tribal leader from Odisha, as its candidate in the presidential polls.

Leaders like KK Sharma (Nationalist Congress Party), Jairam Ramesh (Congress), Yogendra Shastri (Congress) and Sudheendra Kulkarni were present at the meeting on Wednesday.