New Delhi: Like the Presidential polls, the Congress is unlikely to suggest a name for the vice-presidential election on August 6 and will hold consultations with other parties to finalize a joint nominee. Sources indicate that the first meeting of the Congress party over this will be held before July 10.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has deployed the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge who will talk to the like-minded parties to evolve a consensus over the issue. On Wednesday, Kharge met NCP chief Sharad Pawar, CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury and social worker Sudheendra Kulkarni to discuss the vice-presidential elections.
“These informal consultations help us reach broad agreement on a name, which can be approved in a formal meeting,” said a senior AICC functionary. More such consultations will be held over the next few days, said the sources, adding that the Congress had taken a lead in the Presidential election but later the TMC had called a formal meeting of opposition parties in Delhi.
Sources further said the Congress which had given the TMC a leeway in the Presidential polls does not mind following the same template in the vice-presidential polls for the sake of a larger goal of opposition unity. “The Congress is the biggest party in the opposition camp but wants to avoid being blamed for having a big brother like attitude over these two polls,” said a senior AICC functionary.
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“But we are there in the lead. Our leader Jairam Ramesh got to announce the name of Sinha and now he is coordinating an 11-member group to oversee Yashwantji’s campaign,” he said. The ruling NDA too is yet to name its candidate for the vice-presidential contest though the resignation of union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi gave rise to speculations that he may be named a nominee for the important post.
The Congress had followed the same approach for the July 18 Presidential polls in which the joint opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha is pitted against NDA’s Draupadi Murmu. The candidature of Murmu, a woman and a Tribal leader, has put several opposition parties in a bind.
Though TMC chief Mamata Banerjee was keen to name a member of her party as the joint opposition nominee for the Presidential polls, she recently showed some ambiguity when asked if she would not like to support another woman as the next President of India.
Benerjee handled the query well saying she would have been happy to support a woman President but the NDA should have consulted her before the name of Yashwant Sinha was announced. Congress ally JMM too has not been able to decide whether to support Sinha or Murmu, who is known to Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
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The opposition camp is pitching the two important elections as a contest of ideologies rather than a fight between two individuals to send out a message and also to forge unity among the like-minded parties, said sources, adding that the coming polls will also allow the opposition nominees to explain why the contest was important. “This will help us build public opinion on key issues,” said an opposition leader.
