Congress rethinks Prez options

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday changed its stance on fielding a dalit candidate for the post of President of India and is now mulling over the idea of a “people’s President”. The top name under consideration is of M.S. Swaminathan, the architect of the green revolution, and the other is that of nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar.

Though the odds are heavily in favour of the BJP’s candidate, Ram Nath Kovind, the Congress and other Opposition parties feel that an open field cannot be given to the BJP and an ideological fight needs to be put up.

Mr Swaminathan’s name was earlier proposed by NDA ally Shiv Sena, which on Tuesday decided to back the BJP’s nominee. The Congress is keen on playing the farm-er card to counter the BJP’s dalit card at a time when there has been countrywide farmers’ unrest.

If the Shiv Sena does not support Mr Swaminathan after floating his name, the Congress feels that it will be politically exposed in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena has been critical of the BJP for its policies on farmers.

The Congress is also hoping that since Mr Kakodkar hails from Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena may come around and back him.

The Congress feels that in the 2007 presidential election, when the BJP fielded Bhairon Singh Shekhawat against their candidate, Pratibha Patil, their choice was not termed anti-women. So if the Opposition now fields a non-dalit candidate, it cannot be termed anti-dalit. This is the argument the Congress plans to make at the Opposition parties’ meeting on June 22.

If the Opposition parties do not insist, the Congress is not keen on fielding the dalit candidates it had shortlisted — former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and former home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

However, the Congress’ plan will first have to be accepted by other Opposition parties. Left parties are keen to field a dalit candidate, as they think it would make a political statement.

In 2002, when it was certain the Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the BJP’s candidate, will win, the left parties put up Captain Lakshmi Sehgal.

In the last presidential election in 2012 too, the BJP put up former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma only to be defeated by the Congress’ candidate, Pranab Mukherjee.

In the 2017 presidential election, the balance is heavily tilted in favour of the ruling BJP. The electoral college consists of 10,98,903 votes and the half-way mark is 5,49,452 votes.

Even if Shiv Sena walks out of the NDA camp, the NDA has 5,11,790 votes on its own, and with parties like TDP, TRS, YSRCP and AIADMK, it has 8,83,578 votes, making it a smooth sailing for Mr Kovind.