Suspense over next President: Left parties suggest Gopalkrishna Gandhi's name
With the Presidential polls due on July 18, the Opposition is seeking to put up a united fight against the probable National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate. With this in mind, the Left parties have reached out to former West Bengal governor and Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi as a possible choice, sources said. Gandhi, however, has sought some time to decide, the sources added.
- With Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) under President's rule as well as three other states—Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Tamil Nadu—controlled by the Opposition parties, the presidential election would be a tough contest for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA candidate.
- The Opposition plans to give a tough fight by putting up joint candidates for both the presidential and the vice-presidential elections.
To note, Gandhi was the Opposition candidate for the post of vice president of India in 2017. However, he lost to Venkaiah Naidu. The 77-year-old former bureaucrat served as the governor of West Bengal from 2004 to 2009. He has served as India's High Commissioner to South Africa and Sri Lanka. He is the grandson of Gandhi and Rajagopalachari, the last Governor-General of India.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has convened a meeting with 22 Opposition parties on Wednesday in a bid to arrive at a consensus for a joint presidential candidate. Meanwhile, some leaders also proposed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) patron Sharad Pawar's name for the post, but the veteran leader declined to contest as he wants to remain in active politics.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will skip the meeting called by Banerjee. Since Banerjee has also invited the Congress to the meeting, the TRS does not want to share a platform with the Sonia Gandhi-led party. Meanwhile, the AAP said it will consider "the issue only after the candidate for the upcoming presidential election is declared."
Along with the Congress, NCP, Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal, National Conference, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Shiv Sena, and others are among those likely to attend the meeting. Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party said that it would support the candidate decided by Banerjee. Meanwhile, the Biju Janata Dal, led by Naveen Patnaik, is also likely to skip the meet.
The President of India is chosen by an electoral college comprising elected members of both Houses of Parliament, representatives of state legislatures, and the union territories of Delhi and Puducherry. According to the current estimates, the electoral college consists of 776 Members of Parliament (543 Lok Sabha MPs and 233 Rajya Sabha MPs) and 4,809 members of the state legislative assemblies.
