The Government on Thursday reached out to the Opposition on the presidential election with Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and M Venkaiah Naidu meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechuri, but no names figured in the discussion. While the Congress questioned the usefulness of the exercise in the absence of any name, Yechuri demanded that a candidate with “impeccable secular credentials” should be the next President of the country.
However, according to sources, the Government and the BJP are of the view that approaching different parties with one or a panel of names for evolving a consensus
without knowing their views and suggestions in the matter may not be appropriate.
They explained that the Prime Minister and the BJP president desired such consultations before finalisation of the candidate.
The Congress party, however, maintained that they expected the Government side to bring some names for their consideration so that the discussion could be fruitful.
“We expected the BJP leaders to come up with some name, one or more, for the post of President of India, so that the Congress Party could take a call on that. But nothing of that sort happened. The BJP leaders did not propose any name and instead asked us the names,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said after the BJP leader met Sonia.
The third member of the BJP panel, Arun Jaitley is in Korea and was not part of the meeting at Sonia’s 10 Janpath residence.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who was also present during the meeting, said BJP leaders came only to meet and seek cooperation on the presidential election.
“They have not given any names. Since they have not given names, there is no question of consensus. If they give the names, only then can we discuss them. There is no question of consensus,” he said.
The Congress leader said the BJP was seeking cooperation but his party did not know what was on their mind.
Asked if there was any possibility of a consensus on the issue, Kharge said, “The Congress and all other political parties have taken a stand that we will take a call together. When the name has not come, there is no question of any discussion.”
The meeting comes barely two days after a sub group of Opposition leaders constituted by Sonia met in Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Parliament chamber to discuss the Opposition’s strategy. The meeting had decided to wait for the Government’s proposal on the matter before taking a further view.
“The Congress Party has tried to bring about a consensus on every important issue. But the picture is not yet clear on the issue of the presidential election,” Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said.
He said it would be better if the Government also understood the need for unanimity on the issue. “It will be good if there is consensus. But I cannot say anything as of now,” he said.
Asked whether there was any possibility of reaching an agreement on Pranab Mukherjee’s successor, the Congress leader said, “I cannot say what the Government is thinking, but I do understand their mentality, which is against the country. It will be difficult for me to say anything on what the Government is thinking.”
Sharma said the BJP had displayed its “mental bankruptcy” the last time as well when it opposed Mukherjee’s candidature and contested the presidential election.
Yechuri described the meeting with BJP leaders as a “PR exercise” with the ruling party proposing no names for the presidential post. The CPM leader sought that the nominee for the President’s job should have “impeccable secular credentials”.
Rajnath and Naidu held an half-an-hour long meeting with Yechury and other two senior CPM leaders Prakash Karat and Brinda Karat. The Government side suggested to the CPM leaders to consider if putting up a candidate just for the sake of it would be necessary.
Rajnath and Naidu later met BJP veterans lK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, CPI leaders S Sudhakar Reddy and D Raja on Friday evening.
Besides, Naidu separately also met SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, BSP’s Satish Mishra and spoke to BSP chief Mayawati over phone on Friday. Naidu held a detailed discussion with NCP chief Sharad Pawar over the phone and also deliberated the matter with AIADMK leader Thambidurai in Delhi on Friday.
Sources in the Government, without going into the specifics, maintained that some parties have already indicated their views in the matter of selection of candidate for the office of President.
Sources said, on being asked by leaders of various parties, they were told that the Government and BJP would like to finalize the candidate for presidential poll before Modi leaves for a foreign tour on June 24.
However, as both sides are not ready to put forth a list of their probable candidate, a contest between the two sides is not ruled out on the line of the last presidential poll.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s disgruntled but oldest ally, the Shiv Sena said it would recommend eminent agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan’s name for the highest post if the BJP was not ready for the RSS chief’s candidature. Sena, which has been consistently pushing for Mohan Bhagwat as the next President, changed its stand after the RSS chief recently expressed his disinclination to become constitutional head of the country.