NDA looks for key win as consensus eludes Oppn
NEW DELHI: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has an edge in the election for the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman’s post, with the Congress and other opposition parties scrambling until late Tuesday evening to zero in on a joint candidate to field against the ruling coalition’s Haribansh Narayan Singh.
Unable to find a suitable candidate, the Opposition has asked the Congress to select a nominee for the poll. The Opposition leaders will now meet on Wednesday morning to announce their candidate.
The election, due on Thursday, will, however, test the NDA’S floor management skills in the Upper House, where it is in a minority and has faced obstructions on several bills and other issues from opposition parties.
If the NDA wins, the upcoming election will mark its first significant victory in the Upper House. The ruling coalition has managed to garner the support of fence-sitters such as the AIADMK and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), a senior government functionary said on condition of anonymity.
The Opposition appears unsure of its total strength.
“With just a year left before the general election, the House poll reflects the ground reality of the Opposition camp,” political analyst and former Lok Sabha secretary general Afzal Amanullah said.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar sprang into action to call chief ministers such as Naveen Patnaik of Odisha and K Chandrashekar Rao of Telangana for support, said a BJP leader on condition of anonymity.
Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar also tried to contact Patnaik.
Later in the evening, Patnaik informed them that he had promised Nitish Kumar that the BJD would vote for Haribansh Narayan Singh, a lawmaker of Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), an Opposition leader said.
Kesava Rao, a senior leader of Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), said: “Nitish and our chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao are very good friends for many years.”
The Bjp-led NDA, however, has not received any guarantee of support from its ally Shiv Sena. Another ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal, is upset that its MP Naresh Gujral has not been fielded as the NDA candidate, an Akali Dal MP said.
An NDA leader said on condition of anonymity that BJP president Amit Shah had spoken to Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and is scheduled to meet Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal.
A senior Akali leader claimed that the BJP initially asked Gujral to talk to Opposition parties in a bid to evolve a consensus behind him. But finally, after Gujral held negotiations with a few Opposition leaders, the BJP decided to field Haribansh Narayan Singh.
Two days before the election, billed as a prestige fight by many, Opposition leaders met at Azad’s office on Tuesday afternoon and at least two leaders,the Bahujan Samaj Party’s Satish Mishra and Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’brien, proposed that NCP’S Vandana Chavan be chosen as the common Opposition candidate.
Opposition parties asked the Congress to select a common candidate after NCP leader Sharad Pawar rejected the proposal to nominate Vandana Chavan. “The general understanding was that Pawar would be able to influence some fence-sitters. But in the changed political situation, the NCP took the call to not contest,” said a senior Opposition leader on condition of anonymity.
“At the meeting, names of Congress MPS BK Hariprasad and Kumari Selja were suggested as our candidate. Azad said he will consult party leaders and get back,” said a Left leader.