Though an effort is being made by NDA to file consensus nominee for the post of President of India by holding meetings with opposition parties, the contest for the post is likely as the opposition parties may not support the NDA Candidate.
Both the NDA and the non-NDA parties are making efforts to come up with names for post. While Congress chief Sonia Gandhi made efforts by uniting almost all the opposition partied during a lunch meeting held at her residence last month, NDA is also preparing for the polls, as BJP chief Amit Shah appointed a 3 member committee to hold discussion with all the parties regarding the same.
The last day to file the nomination is 28 June and if there are different candidates appearing for the contest, the elections will be held on 17 July and results are likely to be declared by 21 July.
To ensure that non serious candidates do not file nomination for the prestigious election, laws were amended a few years ago. As per the new laws a candidate who is supported by 50 ‘electors’ and seconded by another 50 can file nomination. Elected members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and elected members of state legislative assemblies are the electors.
The process of filing nomination began from 14 June, as 6 persons filed for the nominations, but all the filings were rejected as they did not meet the criteria required for the nominations. None of the nominations has the mandatory support of 100 electors i.e. 50 proposers and 50 seconders.
K Padmarajan from Tamil Nadu, Anand Singh Kushwaha from Madhya Pradesh, A Bala Raj from Telangana, a couple Saira Bano Mohammed Patel and Mohammed Patel Abdul Hamid from Mumbai, and Kondekar Vijayprakash from Pune had filed the nomination papers. Out of the six at least four of the candidates have not deposited Rs 15,000 of security money.
The term of present incumbent Pranab Mukherjee will come to an end on July 24.