JOIN USPresidential Poll: Gopalkrishna Gandhi says no to Opposition; Yashwant Sinha in contention
Opposition scurried for a new consensus candidate – a “non-party” nominee – for the July 18 Presidential elections after Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Monday drove them into a crisis by declining their offer to fight the electoral battle, a day before the leaders are to meet here to finalise a possible nominee.
With the 77-year-old grandson of Mahatma Gandhi backing off even as the Opposition were coming around his name, former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, a former BJP leader who joined the Trinamool Congress last year, was back in strong contention but the deal was not clinched as Congress, CPI(M) and CPI insisted that he first resign from the party.
With Gandhi becoming the third person to refuse to contest after NCP chief Sharad Pawar and National Conference patriarch Farooq Abdullah, senior Opposition leaders Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sitaram Yechury, Jairam Ramesh, D Raja and Praful Patel met here in the evening to mine for names. No Trinamool Congress leader was present in the meeting.
Sources said the name of Sinha, whom the Trinamool Congress informally suggested to some leaders, came up. Sources said Pawar spoke to leaders like Mamata Banerjee, K Chandrasekhar Rao, Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav and they agreed to support an Opposition candidate, including Sinha.
However in the meeting of the six leaders, Congress and the Left leaders wanted Sinha to resign from the party, as the Opposition is looking for a “non-party candidate” for the Presidential elections in the 75th year of Independence and it wants to make the Presidential election an ideological one and wants to pit it as a Gandhi versus Godse battle.
Trinamool Congress has not responded to the suggestion and if it does not agree, then the Opposition will have to look for other names, which could include legal luminaries, intellectuals and artists. The ball is in Trinamool’s court now, a senior leader said.
The six leaders have scheduled another meeting for Tuesday morning to consult with others and arrive at a consensus before the final meeting at Parliament House Annexe where a decision on the name will be taken and announced. The ruling BJP is likely to announce its candidate on June 24 and the Opposition wants to have a head start, sources said. The last date of nomination is June 29.
The 245 word statement from Gandhi was released in the afternoon, much to the disappointment of Opposition leaders, as they were making the final arrangements for the meeting at Parliament House Annexe. Some Opposition leaders tried to persuade Gandhi to reverse his decision but were unsuccessful.
“Several esteemed leaders of the Opposition have done me the honour of thinking of me for the Opposition's candidature in the up-coming elections for the highest office of Rashtrapati. I am most grateful to them. But having considered the matter deeply I see that the Opposition's candidate should be one who will generate a national consensus and a national atmosphere beside Opposition unity,” Gandhi said in his statement.
“I feel there will be others who will do this far better than I. And so I have requested the leaders to give the opportunity to such a person. May India get a President worthy of the office presaged by Rajaji as the last Governor General and inaugurated by Dr Rajendra Prasad as our first President,” he added.
Gandhi was the frontrunner as the Opposition candidate in 2017 Presidential elections but as the NDA announced the name of Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit, the Opposition recaliberated its strategy and fielded Meira Kumar, the daughter of towering Dalit leader Jagjivan Ram and a former Lok Sabha Speaker. Gandhi was later fielded as Vice Presidential candidate but he lost to M Venkaiah Naidu, as the BJP-led NDA had a clear majority in the electoral college.
Also the grandson of India’s last Governor General C Rajagopalachari, Gandhi was approached by Opposition leaders since Wednesday following a meeting of Opposition parties, expressing their support for him.Yechury and Mamata had spoken to him separately prior to the meeting.