Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

As the Presidential elections are approaching, NDA is finally gearing up to decide fro a consensus candidate for the post of President.

Present President Pranab Mukherjee‘s last day at the office will be 24 July, 2017. The election to the top constitutional post will be held on July 17 and the last date for filing nomination is June 28. The nomination process will begin from June 14 with the issuance of a notification and the counting of votes will take place on July 20 in New Delhi.

Almost all the non-NDA parties have united together to field their candidate for the election. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had also arranged a lunch meeting where all the opposition parties were invited to discuss the candidate for the post.

Though as per the tradition, the ruling party first discloses its candidate, therefore the non-NDA parties have recently been appealing  NDA government to come up with a candidate soon. Though the opposition parties have not yet come up with a candidate, but has ensured that it has many deserving candidates to fight against NDA.

With the opposition parties actively participating for unity against the NDA, the ruling party has also begun its meetings on building a consensus on the candidate to become the next President of India. BJP chief Amit Shah had also cancelled his tour to Arunachal Pradesh in order to spent Monday at the party headquarters to take decions for the elections. He has appointed a three-member committee — comprising Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu, to reach out to all political parties and discuss about the same.

A statement released at his behest said that the three-member committee will “hold discussions with leaders of various political parties and make efforts to build a consensus”.

The non-NDA parties has also put up a point that the contest can be avoided only if NDA fields a non-BJP/RSS candidate. Some are even backing up for a second term for Pranab Mukherjee.

BJP will need all the support from both sections of AIADMK, to secure a majority in the polls. The party is not very sure of support from Shiv Sena, as both the parties are not on as amicable terms as before. Moreover, Shiv Sena had earlier also ditched BJP and had supported the oppositions candidate, Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha patil.

While there is no clarity on who will be the NDA candidate. there are also rumors that a non politician may become the next President like APJ Abdul Kalam.

A ten-member Opposition group comprising leaders from various political parties will meet on June 14 to discuss the issue. The names of NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Congress leader Meira Kumar and JDU leader Sharad Yadav have been suggested by some opposition parties. Though Pawar has ruled himself out but is being persuaded by others to contest.