Congress to attend June 15 Opposition meet over Presidential polls

Kharge, who had been given the task to coordinate with the opposition leaders, recently met NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai, setting off speculation that the veteran Maratha leader could be the joint opposition presidential nominee given his stature and connections with most opposition leaders writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday deputed the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge to represent the party at a meeting to discuss a joint Presidential nominee. “Khargeji will attend the meeting tomorrow,” said a senior AICC functionary. The June 15 meeting in Delhi has been called by West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.

There had been speculation that the Congress could skip the meeting as the grand old party’s Chief Ministers in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh had not been invited by Banerjee, who had sent separate letters to several opposition Chief Ministers.

The announcement for the June 15 meeting had come from Banerjee days after Sonia Gandhi had started informal consultations with key opposition leaders, including NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Mamata, to build consensus over the issue.

Kharge, who had been given the task to coordinate with the opposition leaders, recently met NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai, setting off speculation that the veteran Maratha leader could be the joint opposition presidential nominee given his stature and connections with most opposition leaders.

However, Pawar is not keen on the job, said the sources. Kharge had also reached out to CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury, and CPI’s Ajoy Biswom over the issue. Congress insiders said though the grand old party would want a party leader as the joint nominee for the Presidential polls, given the party’s national presence, it is open to hearing the suggestions from other parties.

The need of the hour, said the Congress leaders, is for the opposition to sink their differences and put up a united show. The country, he said, needed a President who can protect the Constitution during challenging times. The MPs and MLAs form the electoral college for the Presidential polls.

At present, the ruling BJP is marginally short of the required numbers to get its nominee elected as the next President of India but may eventually succeed in garnering support. Here, the role of the non-BJP parties like the BJD in Odisha, the YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh and TRS in Telangana would be crucial for the BJP.

Already, TRS leader and Telangana chief minister KC Rao has announced plans to float a national party and is trying to forge an anti-BJP front. Keeping that in mind, the BJP has deputed party chief JP Nadda and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to coordinate with the various parties and garner support for its nominee. If the BJP is not able to get enough support, it will have to prepare for a contest.

On its part, the Opposition does not want the Presidential polls to be a walk-over for the saffron party and is therefore holding conclaves to build unity over the issue. In the 2017 Presidential elections, the joint opposition candidate and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had polled 3.67 Lakh votes out of the total 10.69 Lakh valid votes polled. She was however defeated by NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind.