Yashwant Sinha unanimous Presidential candidate of opposition

Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha has emerged as the consensus presidential candidate of 13 opposition parties, including the Congress, the TMC and the Samajwadi Party, which met here on Tuesday to discuss the issue, sources said.

Opposition leaders, who gathered at the Parliament annexe for the meeting convened by NCP chief Sharad Pawar to decide on a consensus candidate for the presidential election, agreed on Sinha's name, they said. An announcement to this effect is likely to be made soon, they said.

Even Congress leader Jairam Ramesh confirmed about the decision made by the opposition parties. "We (opposition parties) have unanimously decided that Yashwant Sinha will be the common candidate of the Opposition for the Presidential elections," he said.

Sinha's name came up after Pawar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah opted out of the race.

The parties that attended the meeting include the Congress, NCP, TMC, CPI, CPI-M, Samajwadi Party, National Conference, AIMIM, RJD and AIUDF.

Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, TMC's Abhishek Banerjee, DMK's Tiruchi Siva, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and CPI's D Raja were among those who participated in the meeting.

Five regional parties considered non aligned - TRS, BJD. AAP, SAD and YSRCP -- stayed away. These parties had also stayed away from the June 15 meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.