AAP extends support to Yashwant Sinha for President

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday announced its support for Yashwant Sinha, the presidential candidate backed by the opposition. The election for the next President is scheduled to be held on July 18.

“The PAC (political affairs committee) has unanimously decided that the AAP will support Yashwant Sinha. All AAP MLAs and MPs will vote for Yashwant Sinha on July 18. We duly acknowledge and respect NDA’s nominee Draupadi Murmu’s candidature in the Presidential election, but PAC has deemed it fit to support the opposition candidate,” said AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.

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The AAP is the only non-Bharatiya Janata Party, non-Congress outfit with governments in two states -- Delhi and Punjab. In the 1.86 million-strong electoral college, the AAP holds votes with a value of 21,308. Though the party has no Lok Sabha members, it has 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, taking its vote value in the Upper House to 7,000. It has 92 MLAs in Punjab, which adds a vote value of another 10,672. The 62 MLAs in Delhi account for a value of 3,596 and 40 more in Goa, where it has two lawmakers in the assembly.

The decision to support Sinha was taken in a meeting of the AAP’s political affairs committee (PAC) held on Saturday afternoon. It was chaired by AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal at his residence in north Delhi’s Civil Lines.

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“In the PAC meeting, the AAP has decided to support Yashwant Sinha in the upcoming Presidential elections,” said PAC member and Rajinder Nagar MLA Durgesh Pathak.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), with the support of the BJD, YSR Congress Party, Shiromani Akali Dai and AIADMK, has nominated Murmu to run for the presidential polls. The opposition, comprising at least 17 parties that include the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Trinamool Congress Party, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Samajwadi Party, National Conference, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Rashtriya Janata Dal and All India United Democratic Front and now the AAP, have nominated Sinha.

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The electoral college for the presidential election comprises 543 Lok Sabha and 233 Rajya Sabha MPs, and 4,033 members of state legislative assemblies. The value of the parliamentarians’ votes is 543,200, and that of assembly members is 543,231, totalling 1,086,431.

Apart from Kejriwal, Singh and Pathak, those present at the meeting were Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia, AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta, national treasurer and Rajya Sabha MP ND Gupta, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, Delhi Cabinet minister Gopal Rai, Delhi Cabinet minister Imran Hussain, MLA Atishi, MLA Durgesh Pathak and Delhi deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla.