Amit Shah to consult Opposition before picking presidential candidate

With the Opposition putting the ball in the BJP’s court as far as trying to forge a consensus on a presidential candidate is concerned, party president Amit Shah said on Saturday that his party would consult all Opposition parties before picking a candidate for the top post.

Mr Shah, however, did not elaborate on whether the ruling party would try and build a consensus on the candidate’s name. “Consensus is a word that is used in several ways. But we will hold discussions with everybody, including Opposition parties,” he said.

The BJP president, however, refused to discuss any likely names as candidates for the President’s post. “We have not decided on any name yet. We will first talk to our NDA allies. Then we will talk to Opposition parties”.

The NDA seems to have the numbers in its favour as of now with the support of parties like the YSR Congress, TRS and both factions of the AIADMK.

On Friday, after a meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and attended by 17 Opposition parties, a joint statement was issued which said that in case the NDA’s name for a presidential candidate was not acceptable to them or was not “secular”, then the parties would field a candidate of their own.

The Opposition parties have been holding parleys as well as trying to reach out to many fence sitters and NDA allies, like the Biju Janata Dal and the Shiv Sena, to garner their support for the presidential polls to be held in July when President Pranab Mukherjee remits office.