Mystery deepens over race to rasHtrapati bHawan
In a few days, the mystery will be solved about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s choice: whether it would be a man or a woman for the race to the Rastrapati Bhawan.
The RSS, backbone of the BJP, has apparently “offered” only one name, that of Dr Murli Manohar Joshi (83), veteran party leader, highly placed sources confided. Asked how come, as he along with L.K. Advani, Uma Bharti and some others were recently chargesheeted by the CBI in a Lucknow court for criminal conspiracy to demolish the controversial Babri Masjid, the sources said: “They are innocent. The court has not yet pronounced them guilty.”
Further asked why the Sangh Parivar decided to ignore Advani, as it was his rathyatra to Ayodhya that helped the BJP come to power for the first time under the leadership of Atal Behari Vajpayee, they said, “We acknowledge his immense contribution to the party’s growth. But we have not forgotten the ‘secular certificate’ that he gave to Jinnah during his visit to the mausoleum of Pakistan’s founder over a decade ago.”
Meanwhile, strangely, the Congress and other Opposition parties do not have many names to flaunt. They have fiddled with two names only, again and again—of former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi (71), grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and Meira Kumar (72), former Lok Sabha Speaker; she is the daughter of late Dalit leader Babu Jagjivan Ram. The name of Sharad Yadav is still doing the rounds in some quarters. Meira Kumar missed the bus last time when the UPA government fielded Pranab Mukherjee. The BJP has “collected enough ammunition” to target Meira thanks to noted RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal—if she emerges as the united Opposition’s candidate. Several Opposition parties are also not keen to back her
Two top Union ministers have interacted with the Opposition leaders but they have not discussed any names. Perhaps, they are not aware of the identity of the lucky person to be Modi’s choice.
Some senior Congress leaders feel that there is no harm in backing Modi’s candidate, provided it is a good name, to avoid an election. But Modi should in return back their candidate for a new Vice President. Modi is, however, confident of getting his candidates for both the posts win on his own strength.
The capital continues to buzz with known and unknown names. Old names include Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan; Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu, who is a tribal from Odisha, where the BJP is desperate to make inroads.
If Draupadi turns out to be PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah’s ultimate choice, it will be a belated happy birthday gift to her as she turns 59 on 20 June. A new name that has surfaced is of Kerala Governor, Palanisamy Sathasivam (68). He earlier served as the 40th Chief Justice of India. Some have also added the name of “Metro Man” E. Shreedharan to the list.