Yashwant Sinha arrives in Jharkhand, to meet Cong lawmakers on Saturday

Yashwant Sinha, the joint nominee of non-BJP parties for presidential polls, arrived in Ranchi on Friday to seek support of legislators and parliamentarians over his candidature.

Sinha, who is a former MP from Hazaribag, was received by Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur and other party leaders at the airport.

He is scheduled to attend a meeting of Congress legislators on Saturday, and then address a press conference.

Earlier this week, Sinha met AICC's Jharkhand in-charge Avinash Pande and Thakur in Delhi and discussed strategies for the upcoming election on July 18.

According to Congress sources, he is also expected to meet JMM Executive President and Chief Minister Hemant Soren during the day.

The JMM, which runs a coalition government with the Congress and RJD, has pledged its support to NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.

The party had initially backed Sinha, only to change its decision later after receiving flak from the tribal community to which both Soren and Murmu belong.

In the 81-member Jharkhand assembly, the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD alliance has a combined strength of 48 MLAs.

The BJP has 26 legislators, including Babulal Marandi, the former JVM-P chief who joined the saffron camp after the 2019 assembly elections.

The saffron party also has 11 Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs.

The JMM, the Congress and the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) have one parliamentarian each in the Lower House.

The ruling JMM has two MPs in Rajya Sabha and the Congress has one.