Gandhinagar, Jul 8 (IANS): Joint opposition candidate for Presidential poll, Yashwant Sinha on Friday said the nation needs a president who can protect the Constitution of the country.

Sinha was in Gujarat to seek support for himself. He appealed to the MLAs and MPs to vote for the candidate "who can protect the Constituency of India".

He said the nation was passing through a serious constitutional and economic crises and at such a point of time the nation needs a president who does not toe the party line at the cost of national interest.

"There is an undeclared emergency in the country, even the media does not have the liberty to practice the profession freely when a check and balance is must for the country. So MLAs and MPs should vote in accordance with their conscience," said sinha.

The former minister said he was confident of getting votes of the MLAs and MPs belonging to the Congress, BTP and NCP in the state.

He said he disagreed with the political theory that if a person is from a specific community and one holds a constitutional post it helps in uplifting the community. Citing the example of NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu, he said,"They are projecting her as a tribal representative, she was the Governor of Jharkhand for six year, yet tribals' conditions have not improved."

"Though Ram Nath Kovind was president, see the condition of the community in his state. Nothing has changed, on the contrary they have suffered a lot," said Sinha.

He, however, made it clear that he did not mean that a person should confront the central government.

He said, "Communalism is spreading because the state is backing it because communalism is consolidating the vote bank for them."

Sinha said he was shocked to find that even today section 144 is implemented in Gujarat and questioned the state who it was afraid of. He said, "Even for social functions or events the people of Gujarat are asked to seek permission which is anti democracy."