Presidential Elections 2022: Most Indians Want Yashwant Sinha To Withdraw

Yashwant Sinha is currently backed by the opposition camp

When it was announced that Yashwant Sinha will be the candidate for contesting elections for the post of the President scheduled for July, 18, his victory looked unlikely but still possible. He was backed by the entire opposition camp. Leaders like Mamata Bannerjee and Sharad Pawar were hoping that if the BJD in Odisha and the YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh could be persuaded to back Yashwant Sinha, the former BJP leader and minister had an even chance of upsetting the NDA nominee. But all such calculations went for a toss when the NDA announced that Droupadi Murmu will be the nominee. She is a tribal leader who hails from Odisha and has been the Governor of Jharkhand. Many political commentators considered this to be a brilliant move by the NDA.

The BJD and the YSR Congress publicly announced they will back her. Some days later, Mayawati also publicly announced that her party the BSP will back her. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha that leads a coalition government in Jharkhand seems to be backing her. Many tribal leaders from opposition parties have also backed her. Clearly, the opposition “unity” has crumbled and there is simply no doubt anymore that Droupadi Murmu will be the next President of India.

So should Yashwant Sinha gracefully accept reality and withdraw from the race? A C Voter-India Tracker survey asked Indians the same question. And the responses were both interesting and surprising. Overall, a majority of 56% of the respondents were of the opinion that Sinha should withdraw his candidature. Close to 49% of opposition supporters too replied in the affirmative.

The maximum support for the contention came from other backward castes with more than 60% stating that Sinha should withdraw. More than 60% of those aged between 18 and 24 and those aged above 55 also wanted the same. Surprisingly, a minority of 44% of respondents amongst scheduled tribes wanted Yashwant Sinha to withdraw. The response appeared baffling at first glance. But given the churn in Indian politics and society in contemporary times, it seems that tribals are not interested in getting “favours” from other sections of society and want to win their share of the pie fai and square. This becomes evident in the chart which shows a little more than 50% of respondents from the scheduled caste or Dalit community wants Yashwant Sinha to withdraw, compared to 59% of upper caste Hindu respondents.

The responses to the survey question do reveal one thing: even though reservations have become a kind of permanent fixture in Indian society, the hitherto marginalised sections of Indian society now appear assertive, confident and secure in their identity.