Neither K. Chandrashekhar Rao nor TRS representatives had been present in the opposition parties' meet to decide a common candidate for the presidential elections.

Yashwant Sinha during a meeting, in New Delhi, Sunday, June 26, 2022. Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh is also seen. Photo: PTI

New Delhi: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao has announced that the party will be backing opposition’s ‘consensus’ candidate for president, Yashwant Sinha.

President of @trspartyonline Sri KCR Garu has decided to extend support to the candidature of Sri @YashwantSinha Ji in the election for President of India

Along with our Members of Parliament, I will be representing the TRS at the nomination today

The party had, until now, not made its stance clear on the presidential polls. However, reports late on Sunday had said that Rama Rao had left for New Delhi to attend Sinha’s nomination programme.

Along with Rama Rao, who is the son of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, some TRS MPs are also slated to attend the programme.

Neither KCR nor TRS representatives had been present in the opposition parties’ meet to decide a common candidate for the presidential elections.

The BJP’s parliamentary board has named Droupadi Murmu, a party leader, civil servant and a member of a tribal community of Odisha, as its candidate for president. Murmu is largely being seen as a winning candidate, with parties like the Biju Janata Dal, the YSR Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party backing her.

A former BJP leader and Union minister, Yashwant Sinha had told The Wire that while Murmu may be a tribal and he a civil servant, but going by both their track records, it is clear that he has “vastly more experience of governance and various affairs of state then she has”.