The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday said that it would support Yashwant Sinha in the presidential election against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Droupadi Murmu.
"The Aam Aadmi Party made the decision to offer support to Yashwant Sinha ji in presidential election at the PAC [Political Affairs Committee] meeting," said PAC member Durgesh Pathak in a tweet.
Separately, ANI quoted AAP leader Sanjay Singh as saying that AAP respects Murmu but would support Sinha.
ANI quoted him as saying, "AAP will support Opposition's presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha. We respect Droupadi Murmu but we will vote for Yashwant Sinha."
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Thirteen Opposition parties last month announced former Union minister Sinha as their candidate. Sinha's name came up after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah opted out of the presidential race.
The parties that backed Sinha included the Congress, NCP, Trinamool Congress, CPI, CPI-M, Samajwadi Party, National Conference, AIMIM, RJD and AIUDF.
However, the numbers are in Murmu's favour, as support for her has already crossed the 50 per cent threshold needed to win.
Murmu had already garnered around 52 per cent support when Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) pledged its support in June. Since then, former BJP allies Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Shiv Sena have also pledged their support to Murmu, further boosting her numbers.
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The election will be held on July 18 and the result will be out on July 21.
(With PTI inputs)
