A bIzarre Idea fOr neW Prez

Who will succeed “Dada” Pranab Mukherjee in the Rashtrapati Bhawan this July? The top leaders of 17 Opposition parties recently met on the invitation of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to “select” their common candidate. But, instead, they ended up discussing more about how to counter the BJP’s growing influence across the country. They are feeling frustrated as PM Modi has not called them to build a consensus on one suitable name, as is said to be the tradition, to avoid an election. Ask top BJP leaders as to who might be Modi’s choice, they say: “Don’t waste your time reading the PM’s mind.” A few days before the “united Opposition” meeting, some individuals huddled together in a bungalow, not far from Parliament House, discussing “a bizarre idea”. They were keen to push BJP’s “Margdarshak” L.K. Advani (89) as the presidential candidate of the united Opposition. It’s unbelievable, but true. The individuals included a South Indian businessman, a senior retired IAS officer and a former ambassador. Obviously, they were Advani’s admirers. The former IFS career diplomat took the responsibility of “handling the matter” at the Sonia Gandhi end. The businessman gave the impression that he could convince Advani to come on board. They were angry with Modi as he had not asked Advani—the BJP’s senior most leader—to be the NDA’s nominee. They felt that Advani coming as the opposition’s candidate would “embarrass Modi” and he might be forced to back the veteran. However soon the Advani balloon was punctured by the CBI.