Oppn may field joint candidate for polls
NEW DELHI: The Congress and the other Opposition parties are determined to field their own candidate against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s nominee in the coming presidential election, a senior Congress leader claimed on Thursday.
The Opposition’s choice, the leader added, will entirely depend on the NDA’s candidate indicating the Opposition would try to match the ruling dispensation’s political or social considerations.
The Presidential election is scheduled for July, followed by the election for the Vice President in August. In 2017, the Congress-led Opposition fielded former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as its candidate. The ruling dispensation mustered 661,278 votes for Ram Nath Kovind while Kumar received 434,241 votes.
“I can definitely tell you that the Opposition parties will field a candidate against the NDA’s nominee,” the Congress leader emphasized.
The Opposition’s chances of getting its candidate elected in the race is however, slim. Even if the NDA is short of the majority mark of 549,452 votes by 9000 votes, it has potential supporters such as the Biju Janata Dal and the YSR Congress Party that make up for the deficit.
The Congress will also find it difficult to name a candidate acceptable to all opposition parties.
In the recent history of the Presidential elections, only APJ Abdul Kalam saw near unanimity between the ruling side and a large section of the opposition. Even then, the Left parties fielded former INA soldier Lakhmi Sehgal against Kalam.
The Congress leader also pointed out that the BJP didn’t support either Pranab Mukherjee or Pratibha Patil in 2012 and 2007 respectively, and fielded its own candidate.