Prez poll: Four strategies adopted by BJP to ensure NDA nominee’s victory

From trying to evolve an all-party consensus to eyeing Opposition legislators, the ruling BJP is leaving no stone unturned to notch a win in the upcoming presidential poll.

Home minister Rajnath Singh and urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu will meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday to seek support for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee in the July 17 presidential election.

President Pranab Mukherjee’s tenure will end in July.(PTI photo)

Hectic negotiations began in both the treasury and Opposition camps after the election commission issued the poll notification. A confident NDA is burning the midnight oil to ensure that it registers a thumping win in the likelihood of an electoral contest. Here are the four key highlights of its strategy for the presidential poll.

New panel constituted

BJP chief Amit Shah has set up a new panel of Ananth Kumar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (both Union ministers) and party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav to work with state units for ensuring the NDA nominee’s victory.

Consensus-building

A panel of Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu has already been set up to initiate talks with NDA allies and the Opposition. Leaders of the Congress, NCP, CPI(M) and the BSP have already been contacted. More meetings between the treasury and Opposition parties have been proposed for the coming weekend.

Eye on Opposition

Even as efforts are underway to build a consensus on the NDA’s nominee, the BJP is trying to prey on “vulnerable” MPs and MLAs from the Opposition camp. BJP leaders are understood to have touched base with elected representatives of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the Congress in Gujarat and Karnataka.

Dalit-Brahmin combination

The BJP is reportedly considering a Brahmin-Dalit combination for the post of President and vice-president. The names of Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and veteran politician Murli Manohar Joshi are reportedly being considered for the President’s position. Social justice minister Thawarchand Gehlot is seen as a probable candidate for the post of vice-president, which falls vacant in August.