Road to raisina

Road to raisina

Upcoming presidential election will be a barometer of opposition unity.
President Pranab Mukherjee's term ends on July 25 so political manoeuvring to choose his successor is heating up in both government and opposition ranks. Recent election victories have placed NDA stoutly ahead in the game. In the 11 lakh strong electoral college it now has a shortfall of only 18,000 votes, which is likely to be filled by AIADMK. But if the opposition can gather its ranks behind a united candidate, mounting a strong challenge to the NDA's choice, that would enhance the feasibility of an opposition front in the 2019 Lok Sabha battle that might give NDA a run for its money.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been at the forefront of trying to evolve this consensus. She's already reached out to leaders of SP, RJD, NC, NCP, CPM, CPI, JD(U) and JD(S). She's expected to try to bring TMC, BSP, DMK and BJD on board too. But while the arithmetic looks possible on paper, the chemistry won't be easy. At the very least the regional satraps would prefer a non-Congress candidate.
But it's not at all clear who they could all support. A popular non-political face could be a way out.
Another effort at consensus building was seen when representatives of nine political parties gathered in the capital to mark the 95th birth anniversary of socialist leader Madhu Limaye on May Day. In this gathering too there was a sense the upcoming presidential election will be an acid test. Actually the overall mood is well summed up in what Omar Abdullah had tweeted after BJP's mega victory in UP: “At this rate we might as well forget 2019 & start planning, hoping for 2024.“ However, even a mechanical coming together of opposition forces at this point could change this fatalistic narrative.
On the BJP side, longstanding contender LK Advani looks shaky since the Supreme Court revived criminal conspiracy charges against him in the Babri Masjid demolition case. Chatterati say the elevation of either Sumitra Mahajan or Sushma Swaraj is possible. There have also been rumours of the first ever RSS president but Mohan Bhagwat has squelched them. Jharkhand governor Draupadi Murmu's name is being mooted as India's first ever tribal president. But the odds are high NDA might spring a Yogi Adityanath-like surprise. When the previous NDA government did this with missile man APJ Abdul Kalam, he was a smashing success even with the opposition.