Nitish Kumar’s gambit: Propping up Pranab

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s suggestion that President Pranab Mukherjee be chosen by consensus to continue for a second term hinges largely on the BJP which has not expressed an opinion yet but may be disinclined to endorse him. Indeed, there has been no instance of the BJP and Mukherjee not seeing eye to eye in public though there has been no great cordiality either. Recently, when Pranab Mukherjee said that in his view there has been no prime minister better than Mrs Indira Gandhi, he could hardly have ingratiated himself to the BJP. Nitish Kumar was realistic enough to accept that Pranab Mukherjee could get a second term only if the BJP came round to accepting him and a consensus was built around his name by the ruling alliance and the Opposition. As things stand, the BJP and its allies are very close to a majority of electoral votes required to clinch the coveted chair. With Jaganmohan Reddy having recently pledged support in Andhra and K. Chandrashekhar Rao in Telangana, the NDA may well have already crossed the half-way mark. Would they then not like to put their chosen candidate in the presidential chair rather than having to make do with a former Congressman? Were the BJP not sure of getting its presidential nominee through, it could well have opted for status quo. But in the current circumstances, they would rather have their own man. As is natural, there is intense speculation on who could be the BJP nominee and who the joint Opposition’s challenger. A hardcore BJP or RSS person could evoke strong opposition from the so-called secular parties but would the BJP be overly concerned about that. There is the example of Yogi Adityanath who was anointed chief minister of Uttar Pradesh despite his out and out saffron credentials. That the yogi has surprised many by his performance so far is quite another matter.

Shrewd as Nitish Kumar is, his Pranab Mukherjee trial balloon has been accompanied by a categorical ruling out of his own candidature as the prime ministerial nominee of the joint opposition. Nitish knows only too well that with the Narendra Modi wave still holding out, there is little chance of anyone displacing Modi from his high perch at least in the next parliamentary elections in 2019. There is no denying that he would be a credible challenger for the Opposition but his chances of defeating Modi are very slim. He therefore sees wisdom in postponing his ambitions to a future date.