Call it a democratic move. But Yashwant Sinha, the joint opposition's candidate for the upcoming Presidential elections, followed the footstep of his rival Droupadi Murmu, the ruling NDA’s nominee for the same Presidential poll, by reaching out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, seeking their support.
Both Yashwant Sinha and Droupadi Murmu launched their campaign on Friday. However, before Sinha approached PM Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh without even filing his nomination papers, Droupadi Murmu called up Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and others of the Opposition leaders including West Bengal CM Mamata Bannerjee, minutes after filing her nomination papers on Friday.
In life and politics time matters. As such, since the Opposition had declared him as their joint Presidential candidate, Yashwant Sinha ought to have taken a lead by approaching the ruling NDA leaders first. He did not do so.
Instead, Yashwant Sinha preferred to a campaign by giving interviews with media persons. Unlike Droupadi Murmu who filed nomination papers and in her first step forward campaign, approached senior leaders of the Opposition including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, and WB CM Mamata Bannerjee.
This gesture of hers did not go unnoticed.“If you call it her humbleness, she has won the hearts of millions and millions of people across the country and abroad by showing her humility, a feature of rich tribal culture”, opines Union Minister Arjun Munda.
A number of tribal leaders including former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi have appealed to Yashwant Sinha to withdraw his candidature and thereby facilitate Droupadi Murmu to become the first woman tribal President of India unopposed.
Another first for her is this. While Murmu had filed nominations on Friday, Sinha is scheduled to file his nomination papers on June 27 in the presence of top opposition leaders.