On a day the Election Commission issued notification for the presidential election, the opposition parties took the initiative to arrive at a consensus candidate for the post. The BJP too reached out to some of the opposition leaders in an attempt to evolve a consensus name.
BJP chief J.P. Nadda and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh have formally started reaching out to all parties with a plea to announce a joint candidate. As the ruling party is yet to reveal its candidate, the opposition party leaders it reached out to remained noncommittal.
It is a formal exercise for the ruling party to seek support although both sides will stick to their own candidates.
During the opposition meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, which saw attendance of leaders from 17 parties, the name of NCP chief Sharad Pawar was proposed as candidate. He declined the offer, necessitating more meetings by the opposition leaders to pick up a joint candidate.
The name of Gopalkrishna Gandhi, grandson of M.K. Gandhi, who was picked up as the joint candidate for the vice presidential poll by the opposition the last time, was considered. Farooq Abdullah was another name that came up.
After the meeting, Banerjee said a good start has been made as parties met after a long time. She revealed that Pawar’s name was proposed by all, but he declined. The Bengal CM said all parties decided that a joint candidate will be picked up.
The parties will meet again in a week to decide on the candidate. Banerjee, Pawar and congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge will hold discussions with other parties.
After the meeting Pawar tweeted, “I sincerely appreciate the leaders of opposition parties for suggesting my name as a candidate for the election of the President of India, at the meeting held in Delhi. However, I like to state that I have humbly declined the proposal of my candidature.”
The meeting was attended by senior leaders from the TMC, Congress, CPI, CPM, CPI(ML), RSP, Shiv Sena, NCP, RJD, and SP. The AAP, TRS, BJD, Akali Dal stayed away although they were invited.
Kharge said during the meeting that his party will play a constructive role in picking up consensus candidate in the next few days. “Let us be proactive and not be reactive. The Congress party has no particular candidate in mind. It will sit together with all of you and arrive at a candidate acceptable to all.”
As the opposition parties feel the heat of BJP’s aggressive expansion programme, they seemed to have realised the need to stay united and send across this message of unity to people.
The Congress said the consensus candidate should be someone committed to upholding the Constitution of India, its values, principles and provisions in letter and spirit.
Although many of these parties compete with each other at the regional level, they came together with a view to counter the BJP, which is likely to announce its candidate soon.
The opposition unity is the larger goal of the anti-BJP parties as they would like to formulate a joint strategy for the 2024 elections.
“Each one of us has taken a larger national view and come here for a bigger cause. Let this spirit continue. The unity we demonstrate now will have implications going well beyond the presidential polls,” Kharge said.
