Yashwant Sinha meets Hemant Shoren after JMM announces support to Murmu in Prez polls

|HT|

Opposition camp's presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha on Saturday said democracy stands “ruined” in India, while reiterating that the polls for the country's highest constitutional role should not be made about a question of identity but a fight for ideology. Sinha, who himself hails from Jharkhand, landed in capital Ranchi on Friday. He made the statement at a press conference following his meeting with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president and chief minister Hemant Soren. During the meet, Sinha sought JMM's support for next week's presidential elections.

“I appeal to the voters (the electoral college) to exercise their franchise after listening to the voice of their conscience,” Sinha said. “One person in the past had won as president when voting was done on the basis of their conscience. I believe the same will happen this time.” The opposition's presidential nominee further attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre for “subverting constitutional institutions”.Speaking to reporters about the recent row over the list of ‘unparliamentary words’, Sinha said when he began his election campaign on June 29 from Trivandrum, he was of the view that the democracy in India was in danger. “And as I end my campaign today here (Ranchi), I am convinced that democracy has actually come to an end in the country,” he added.

Calling the row over ‘unparliamentary language’ a “laughable” matter, Sinha said that the Centre now wants even the opposition MPs to “only praise” it.

Sinha's election campaign in Ranchi comes two days after the ruling JMM announced its support to the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu. As an explanation, JMM president Shibu Soren said in a letter that Murmu, who served as Jharkhand governor for more than six years, is the first tribal woman post independence to have got the honour of becoming the president.

“After long deliberations, the party has decided to support Murmu in the election. All party legislators, MPs are directed to vote in favour of Murmu on July 18,” the letter added.

This came as quite a blow to the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), who are in a coalition government with the JMM in Jharkhand. The JMM was one of the 17 opposition parties that had announced Sinha as their joint candidate last month but chose to change stance. Recently, another opposition party Shiv Sena also announced their support to Murmu.

Meanwhile, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) headed by K Chandrashekar Rao, and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal, have vowed to support Sinha in the presidential polls. Both these regional parties had skipped the opposition's presidential poll-strategy meeting held before Sinha's name was announced for the job. But both the AAP and the TRS have vowed support to Sinha for the upcoming presidential elections.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)