AAP to back Yashwant Sinha in the presidential election
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New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party announced its decision to support joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the July 18 presidential election. Voting for the Presidential poll will take place on Monday. The counting will take place on July 21.
Sanjay Singh, the Rajya Sabha MP of the Aam Aadmi Party, said the AAP has respect for NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu but the party will support Yashwant Sinha.
He was speaking after a political advisory committee (PAC) meeting. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Punjab MP Raghav Chadha, MLA Atishi, and other PAC members were present at the meeting.
AAP is the only non-BJP and non-Congress party with governments in two states - Delhi and Punjab. The party has 10 Rajya Sabha MPs from two states. Three of them are from Delhi.
The party also has 156 MLAs - 92 in Punjab, 62 in Delhi, and two in Goa.
Sinha is backed by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress in the presidential polls.
NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu already has the support of regional parties like BJD, YSR Congress, Biju Janata Dal, Bahujan Samaj Party, Shiromani Akali Dal, and Shiv Sena. Her vote shares have crossed 60%.
Shiv Sena recently declared support for Murmu noting that it is the first time a tribal woman had the chance to hold the office of President. Following the announcement, Sinha cancelled his visit to Mumbai to address the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) legislators.
Uddhav Thackeray on June 13 said that several party officials from the tribal communities like MLC Aamshya Padvi, former MLA Nirmala Gavit, and Eklavya Sanghtana's Shivajirao Dhavale asked him to support Murmu.