Sir— This refers to the editorial, “Now, a symbolic contest” (June 24). The Congress, leading the Opposition brigade in this exercise, has mentioned ‘ideological reasons’, ‘Scheduled Caste candidate’ etc to justify its choice on who is now the United Progressive Alliance’s official nominee.
Until only the other day, before the National Democratic Alliance named Ram Nath Kovind, the Congress, the left parties and Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress were considering the name of Gopal Krishna Gandhi. The left apparently pushed his candidature till the last hour. This sudden concern for a Scheduled Caste to be selected is, thus, obviously an afterthought in the belief that at least, there will be some dent in the votes for Kovind. It was by no means a natural selection of the best that the Opposition could have come up with. Is the presidential election a mere game for the Congress to joust with the ruling party as part of its repugnance for the Narendra Modi regimeIJ