Presidential Polls | BJP reaches out to 17 Opposition parties to build consensus on presidential candidate

Leaders of 17 Opposition parties attended the meeting convened by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee with the aim to forge a consensus on fielding a joint candidate for the Presidential polls scheduled on July 18 (Photo : AITC)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reached out to leaders of Opposition parties seeking support for building consensus on a presidential candidate ahead of the polls on July 18. The move came in the wake of Opposition leaders deciding to field a common candidate in the forthcoming election of the next President.

Senior BJP leaders dialled leaders including Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Sharad Pawar and National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah. Pawar and Abdullah were two of the three names discussed as possible Presidential candidates of the Opposition at the meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on June 15.

READ | There'll be one consensus Opposition candidate for Presidential Polls, says Mamata Banerjee after Delhi meet

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is said to have spoken to Pawar, Banerjee, Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, BSP’s Mayawati, JMM’s Shibu Soren BJD’s Naveen Patnaik, YSRCP’s Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and JD-U’s Nitish Kumar for the purpose.

BJP had authorised Singh and party chief J P Nadda to hold consultations with other parties for building consensus on a presidential candidate

Nadda reportedly spoke with Meghalaya chief minister and National People’s Party chief Conrad Sangma, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, and leaders of the All Jharkhand Student Union, Naga People’s Front and some independents.

Also read | No question of sharing any platform with Congress: TRS on opting out of Mamata Banerjee's Oppn meet

Opposition leaders, after the meeting convened by Banerjee, said the candidate will be finalised in the next meeting before June 21. The meeting also made public that Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar was not keen on becoming a presidential candidate saying he still wants to be ‘active’ in politics.

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. pic.twitter.com/j9lTFFJMUX

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— Sharad Pawar (@PawarSpeaks) June 15, 2022

“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 would like to state that I have humbly declined the proposal of my candidature. I am happy to continue my service for the well-being of the common man,” Pawar said later in a tweet.

As many as 17 parties, including the Congress, attended the meeting. Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and YSRCP’s YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, however, decided to skip the meeting.

Apart from Pawar and Abdullah, the third name on the list of probable Presidential candidates of the Opposition was former West Bengal Governor and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

The election for the next President of India will be held on July 18. The counting will take place on July 21. The term of the current President Ram Nath Kovind ends on July 24 and an election for the next president has to be held before that day.

The BJP may not have the numbers to get the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate as the next President of India. So, the role of parties like BJD and YSRCP will be key.