Tue. Mar 19th, 2024

As the Presidential elections are nearing, NDA is gearing up and making strategies to lure as many parties towards their side as possible. BJP Chief Amit Shah had appointed a 3 member committee, comprising of Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu, to reach out to all political parties and discuss about the building a consensus on the candidate to become the next President of India.

The committee began its work on Wednesday, as Venkaiah Naidu met Rajnath Singh to discuss the issue. While Finance minister Arun Jaitley has left for an official visit to South Korea, the other two members will be meeting different party leaders.

The members will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and BSP chief Mayawati on Friday to build a consensus on the candidate for the post of President of India. Naidu has already got in touch with BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra and NCP leader Praful Patel. A meeting with party chief Sharad Pawar is being worked out.

After Venkaiah Naidu met Rajnath Singh on Wednesday, he left for Vishakapattanam where he met CM Chandrababu Naidu. He also held meeting with N Rangaswamy of Puducherry based All India NR Congress.

As per the strategy set by 3 committee members and Amit Shah, Naidu will focus on south parties while Jaitley will be reaching out to Socialists and Rajnath Singh is likely to talk to Shiv Sena, Trinamool and parties from the northeast.

To win the majority, NDA will need the support of parties like YSR Congress, AIADMK, TRS and INLD. At present NDA has 46.8% of votes of the electoral college, with support of 776 MPs and 4,120 MLAs from state assemblies.

The last date to file the nomination for the polls is 28 June, however NDA is likely to file it by 23 June, before PM Narendra Modi leaved for his tour to US.