No blind support for NDA's Prez aspirant

Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its saffron ally in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena could not reach a consensus on the Presidential elections and the candidates for the coveted post. BJP president Amit Shah held a close-door meeting with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence on Sunday. Sources said that Mr Thackeray has refused to extend a blanket support to the BJP candidate without knowing who it is.  Mr Thackeray remained firm on two names for the President’s post — RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and scientist M.S. Swaminathan.

The closed-door meeting at Matoshree, Bandra (east) between the BJP and Sena leaders went on for an hour. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra BJP president Raosaheb Danve and Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray were also present at the meeting. Sources said the two leaders spoke about the Presidential election scheduled next month. The BJP is seeking opinions from all parties on the names of possible candidates for the President’s post.

Sena sources said Mr Shah sought support from the ally for the common presidential candidate. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would decide the name of the candidate. “Mr Thackeray insisted on knowing the name of the candidate. However, no name was revealed by the BJP.

The Sena will not give a blanket support to BJP candidate,” the source said. The BJP has kept name of their candidate for the top post under wraps. It may be recalled that the Sena had supported

Congress candidate Pratibha Patil in the presidential election in 2007 and Pranab Mukherjee in 2012, going against BJP candidates then. The Sena has put the BJP in a fix, after it suggested Mr Bhagwat and Mr Swaminathan (aka father of the Green Revolution) for the President’s post.  

For the 2017 presidential poll, there are 776 MPs and 4,120 MLAs, whose vote value totals to 10,98,882. Every MP’s vote value is 708 and every MLA’s is around 175, which is based on their respective state’s population. The halfway mark is 5,49,442 votes, which BJP needs to get its candidate elected. In Maharashtra, Sena has 18 Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs with voting value 14,868. In the Assembly, there are 63 MLAs whose voting value is 11,025. So, the Sena’s total vote value is 25,893. Though it was an important political development, there was no official comment from both the parties on the discussion held between the two top leaders.