If not king, be our kingmaker: that is Congress' message to Sharad Pawar. The 76-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo, who declined to be the Opposition candidate for the Presidential election, will now undertake the task of bringing about a consensus among non-BJP parties to field winnable candidates for the elections to the President and the Vice-President posts.
If not king, be our kingmaker: that is Congress' message to Sharad Pawar. The 76-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo, who declined to be the Opposition candidate for the Presidential election, will now undertake the task of bringing about a consensus among non-BJP parties to field winnable candidates for the elections to the President and the Vice-President posts.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who had earlier persuaded Pawar to contest, herself announced the subgroup, which has other bigwigs like former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury as members. As the coordinator of the subgroup, Pawar will hold individual consultations with other members to bring about a consensus and also to reach out to non-NDA regional players.
Leaders of 17 Opposition parties, who on May 26 attended a luncheon meet had authorised Congress president Sonia Gandhi to form such a sub-group.
Incidentally, Nitish Kumar had skipped the lunch hosted by Congress chief and only next day arrived in the national capital to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, setting speculations of cracks within opposition rife. But now as member of the subgroup, speculations of his moving out of the Opposition camp have been put to rest.
President Pranab Mukherjee completes his five-year term on July 24, while Vice-President Hamid Ansari's second term ends on August 10. So far names being discussed in Opposition circles are former West Bengal governor and Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav and Congress leader Meira Kumar. The Opposition, however, is waiting for the BJP-led NDA to announce its Presidential candidate before revealing its cards.
Though this panel is basically tasked with uniting the Opposition parties on the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections, notification for which is expected on June 15, it may become a platform for building an anti-BJP grand alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress sources said.
The Election Commission on Wednesday announced the poll schedule for the Presidential election, fixing polling in the Parliament House and State Assemblies on July 17 and counting in the Parliament House by the Lok Sabha Secretary-General as the returning officer on July 20. The new President is to take the oath in the Central Hall of Parliament on July 25.
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