Ahead of the Presidential election on July 18, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday deputed party president JP Nadda and defence minister Rajnath Singh to hold talks with allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), opposition parties and allies of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to build a consensus.
The tenure of incumbent President Ram Nath Kovind will expire on July 25 and the election to pick his replacement will be held on July 18.
The BJP will make efforts to pick a consensus candidate who will get support from across party lines, said a party functionary, requesting anonymity.
At present, the NDA allies include the Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party led by Pashupati Paras, Apna Dal (Sonelal), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Jannayak Janata Party, Asom Gana Parishad, and a clutch of parties in the Northeast.
The outreach process by Nadda and Rajnath will begin shortly, the BJP functionary said.
The party is confident of making up for the deficit votes that it requires for picking the President. As on date, the NDA is short of the required majority mark by a little less than 20,000 votes and is banking on support from friendly parties that are not part of the NDA such as the YSR Congress Party and the Biju Janata Dal.
“There is a possibility that many parties that have broadly supported the UPA and are not counted as friendly parties may also support the NDA nominee,” said the party functionary. The rift between the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress in Karnataka that came to fore during the recent Rajya Sabha biennial polls when two JD(S) legislators cross voted (for the Congress and the BJP) for instance has given the BJP hope that there might be chinks in the Opposition unity.
{{/usCountry}}“There is a possibility that many parties that have broadly supported the UPA and are not counted as friendly parties may also support the NDA nominee,” said the party functionary. The rift between the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress in Karnataka that came to fore during the recent Rajya Sabha biennial polls when two JD(S) legislators cross voted (for the Congress and the BJP) for instance has given the BJP hope that there might be chinks in the Opposition unity.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP has also deputed senior Union ministers to reach out to all non-NDA chief ministers for eliciting their support for the NDA nominee.
Singh was also part of the three-member committee set up for consensus building ahead of the presidential election in 2017 along with then finance minister late Arun Jaitley and then information and broadcasting minister M Venkaiah Naidu.
“Both Nadda and Singh have been given the mandate owing to their political clout and equations with leaders from across party lines. As the leader of the ruling alliance, the BJP will make efforts to seek the support of even the opposition parties,” said the functionary quoted above.
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