Yashwant Sinha, the opposition candidate for the presidential election, said that if he was elected as the president of India, he would act only as per the Constitution.
He said that the opposition had made him a presidential candidate to save the Constitution and democracy.
Sinha made these remarks while addressing a press conference jointly held by the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal president Jayant Chaudhary at the SP office here on Thursday evening.
Sinha was in the city to garner support of opposition parties.
Yashwant Sinha said that this time the presidential election was of extraordinary nature as the situation in the country had divided society into many parts. He claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had become silent on important issues.
“There is a disturbed and extraordinary situation in the country as the values of the Constitution are being destroyed. If it continues like this, one day the Constitution will become meaningless,” Sinha asserted.
“The Article 370 issue went to the court but when the hearing will be is not known. Don't know when the hearing on the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens will be held. People sitting in government want society to be divided. After all, I will not worry about the country for vote politics. The government does not need opposition. The president has the right to call the prime minister and explain. The president and the prime minister, both on the constitutional posts, should work according to the Constitution,” Sinha added
“I have a deep relationship with Lucknow. I wish Mulayam Singh Yadav a long life. I also had good relations with Chaudhary Ajit Singh. Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee made Lucknow his karmabhoomi but regretted where his party had reached today,” Sinha said while remembering his association with BJP and the good relations with the opposition leaders.
Sinha said that when some big leaders of the opposition, including Sharad Pawar, refused the candidature, the opposition made him the presidential candidate as a fourth option. “I hope that the Central government and Bharatiya Janata Party would follow their rajdharma, as I am following my rajdharma,” Sinha said, adding that there was only darkness in front of the youth in the present government.
“The government is failing to provide jobs. All the schemes, including Agnipath, are not good for the youth,” he added.
The presidential candidate of the opposition also attacked the Yogi Adityanath government of UP. He said that there was a bulldozer raj in UP and nothing could be worse than driving a bulldozer.
“Misuse of public service will stop from the second day of my taking oath. We have penetration in many parties, we have maximum hold in BJP,” Sinha said while showing confidence of winning the presidential election.
Speaking in support of Yashwant Sinha, Akhilesh Yadav said that they could not have any good candidate in the conditions the country was going through.
“There is no better candidate than Yashwant Sinha to show the way to the government which is functioning against democracy and the Constitution. We all have stamped Sinha as a common candidate,” said RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary while extending support to Sinha on behalf of his party.
“We appeal to everyone to join this campaign,” Chaudhary said while making an appeal to ensure the victory of Sinha.
Besides Akhilesh and his legislators, Jayant Chaudhary also reached the SP office with RLD MLAs to support the opposition candidate in the presidential election, but the legislators of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, an ally of the SP, did not attend the meeting.
The role of Uttar Pradesh is very special in the election of the president. In this election the value of one vote of MLA is 208 and value of one vote of MP is 700. If the total MLAs of BJP and allies are added up, then the value of their votes is 1.21 lakh. This includes votes of all 273 MLAs, 25 Rajya Sabha members and 66 Lok Sabha MPs from the BJP and allies. The main role of all of them is going to be the victory of Draupadi Murmu. Not only this, 14.88 per cent of the total votes of public representatives across the country are with UP. Besides BJP and its allies, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has also given support to Murmu.