New Delhi: The Opposition was split wide open on Wednesday with the Janata Dal (United) deciding to support the NDA presidential candidate, while the Congress, Left parties and Trinamul Congress remained determined to contest the presidential election. Former Speaker Meira Kumar emerged as the frontrunner as joint Opposition candidate, while the other names still doing the rounds were of B.R. Ambedkar’s grandson Prakash Ambedkar, former home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and former Rajya Sabha member Balchandra Mungekar.
Ms Kumar met Congress president Sonia Gandhi late on Wednesday evening, after a day of hectic consultations within the Congress as well as within the Opposition conglomerate, indicating that the former Speaker could be emerging as the candidate. However, another name doing the rounds was of Congress’ Lok Sabha leader Mallikarjun Kharge, a Scheduled Caste from Gulbarga in Karnataka.
Out of the 17-party Opposition conglomerate, the parties that remain on board to contest Ram Nath Kovind’s are the CPI(M) and CPI, Trinamul Congress and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD. The JD(U) declared it will not even attend the meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday. The SP and BSP were non-comittal, and sources said their stand depends on who is chosen as the candidate.
After an emergency huddle of the Congress, followed by hectic parleys within the ranks of the Opposition, Ms Kumar emerged as the leading candidate due to her being a woman dalit leader and Babu Jagjivan Ram’s daughter. She was also likely to get support from BSP supremo Mayawati, who has said she would be forced to support Mr Kovind if the Opposition did not field another dalit.
Sources said there were some objections to Mr Shinde’s name from certain parties.
Despite the JD(U) announcing its support to the NDA candidate during the day, many Congress leaders, led by Rajya Sabha leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, tried to convince the party, which is its alliance partner in Bihar along with the RJD, to stay on board. However, in the evening, after a marathon meeting of the JD(U) core committee, party spokesman K.C. Tyagi finally announced support for Mr Kovind, and said his party would not attend the meeting on Thursday.
Sources said the reason Mr Kumar gave his party was that the state had incurred huge revenue losses due to prohibition and it needed the Centre’s help to tide over the situation. However, there was a split on this even within the JD(U), with the president of its Kerala unit, M.P. Veerendra Kumar, saying he would not support Mr Kovind. In Kerala, the JD(U) is part of the Congress-led United Democratic Front. Although it has no members in the Kerala Assembly, Mr Veerendra Kumar is a member of the Rajya Sabha and therefore his vote will not go to Mr Kovind.
As the JD(U) exited, the Congress president made an urgent call to Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee, who is on a visit to the Netherlands. After consultations, she is learnt to have agreed to the name of Ms Kumar.
In a late-evening phone call to CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Mr Azad is learnt to have conveyed Mrs Gandhi’s message that the Congress would contest the polls at all costs.
Sources said the Left is, however, pushing for either Mr Ambedkar or Mr Mungekar as both being dalits from Maharashtra could force a rethink in the Shiv Sena and ensure that the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party remains on board.
