President election is set to happen on July 18.
A farmer from Uttar Pradesh's Chandauli filed a nomination for the Presidential election in Delhi on Monday. After enrolling, the farmer, Vinod Kumar Yadav, said he filed the nomination after receiving an "order" from god.
Yadav said that he lives next to defence minister Rajnath Singh's village and has spoken to MPs of 10 states, who have agreed to support him. He said he was confident about winning the presidential election riding on the support from these MPs and MLAs. Yadav added mentioned that he will make his village known to all after winning the polls.
Yadav is a resident of Kalani village in Illiya area of Chandauli district. Yadav mentioned that he is the son of a farmer and has studied till Class 10. Yadav had started contesting elections 2005-06. So far, he has contested for the posts BDC, the village head, zilla Panchayat member, Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha all. However, no election was won by him so far.
He said: "Talks are on with the MPs of all the states, including UP, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Goa, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka over contesting the elections. Everyone has assured that they will cooperate with us."
Yashwant Sinha, the joint Opposition's presidential candidate, on Monday filed his nomination papers. Sinha handed over four sets of nomination papers to Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody, who is the returning officer for the presidential election.
Sinha (84) was joined by top opposition leaders like NCP's Sharad Pawar, Congress' Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, DMK's A Raja and NC leader Farooq Abdullah were also present when Sinha submitted his nomination papers. No leader from Shiv Sena was present on the occasion. The party has, however, declared that it will support Sinha.
Sinha, who was part of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA cabinet, was named as the common opposition candidate for the presidential election on June 21. He had quit the BJP and joined the Trinamool Congress in 2021. Sinha quit the TMC after a few days before he was fielded by the opposition parties for the presidential election.
