Oppn cornered, NDA certain
Pitching the contest as a battle between ideologies, Opposition has put up a brave front to counter the perception that NDA’s Kovind will cruise to an easy win
The Opposition is keen to make a match of Monday’s presidential election which looks like a one-sided contest that the ruling NDA’s nominee Ram Nath Kovind is expected to breeze through.
The Congress-led Opposition is putting up a brave front to counter the perception that the contest is a mere formality. It has pitched the election for India’s 14th President as a fight between ideologies and not a Dalit versus Dalit battle. Both Kovind and Opposition candidate Meira Kumar are Dalits.
“It’s not a symbolic fight… It will be a good, tough fight,” said CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy.
Out of the total value of 10,96,004 votes, the Opposition is eyeing around 400,000 and is also hopeful of cross-voting in the absence of a party whip. At the same time, the Opposition is taking all steps to ensure there lawmakers don’t vote for Kovind.
It has a reason to be cautious. The Janata Dal (United), which leads the ruling coalition in Bihar, has already broken ranks to announce support for Kovind, the former state governor.
Fearing cross-voting, TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has asked her party MPs to vote in the state capital Kolkata and not in Delhi as is customary.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will meet her party MPs in the Capital on Sunday and has also invited MPs from other opposition parties for an interaction later in evening.
As the Congress leader tries to fortify the Opposition camp, the BJP-led NDA expects to make
some inroads. It has tasted initial success, with six TMC MLAs from Tripura supporting Kovind.
The Trinamool’s Tripura unit defended the move, saying it decided to back Kovind since the ruling CPI(M) was supporting Meira Kumar. Banerjee, who shares an acrimonious relationship with the NDA, is upset but there is little she can do about it. The BJP leadership has also approached KM Mani, the Kerala Congress chief, and expects support from some of his MLAs.
“There are some states where we will get 100% of votes,” a BJP leader said, refusing to elaborate.
The factionalism within the Congress in Gujarat and Karnataka and growing trouble for the TMC in Bengal following a crackdown on chit-fund companies has the BJP hopeful of cross-voting.
The NDA, which has a brute majority in the Lok Sabha and BJP governments is several big states, is also buoyed by the support pledged by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the YSR Congress Party, the AIADMK and the Biju Janata Dal.