New Delhi: Competition, not consensus. The race for Rashtrapati Bhavan was thrown wide open on Wednesday by unexpected political manoeuvres by - who else? - Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. First, soon after her meeting with the Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi, she announced that Pranab Mukherjee and Hamid Ansari are Sonia's – and the Congress's – first and second choice for President. Then, in a move that took political circles by surprise, Banerjee met Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav. And finally, in a remarkable display of political handshakes, Banerjee and Yadav jointly rejected Sonia's choices, and proposed three alternative names.
It was in the choice of these names that Banerjee and Yadav threw down a political gauntlet of sorts, challenging the UPA. For, while former president APJ Abdul Kalam and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee were expected suggestions, the third name was both a surprise and a confrontationist gambit. Because the name in question was that of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Naturally, the Congress has rejected the suggestion already.
"The Presidential candidate should be chosen by consensus. There are no priorities in these names, let the political parties decide," said Banerjee. "The UPA will have to work on a consensus candidate in light of the TMC-SP proposing the PM as one of their choices for President," said NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Not surprisingly, the BJP took the opportunity for a dig at the UPA, saying, "There is no coalition in the coalition government."
Leaving aside the fact that this is the first time anyone has seriously proposed a sitting Prime Minister's name for the post of President, what this face-off portends is a serious clash of wills over the next President of India. Not only does the UPA in its present form not have a combined majority in the Lok Sabha and the Raj Sabha to push its candidate through, the fact that one of its constituents, the Trinamool Congress, is not party to the Congress's choice suggests that there could be alternative political combinations for the choice of India's next President.
There has been a great deal of speculation in recent weeks over whether Mukherjee was indeed Sonia Gandhi's first choice. Banerjee's opposition to his candidature was well known, despite occasional statements professing that she was noncommittal. All this while, it was believed that Sonia and Gandhi would consult her in private before officially announcing the Congress party's choices. However, with Banerjee declaring that Mukherjee and Ansari were the Congress's first and second choices, Sonia Gandhi was pushed into a position where she would find it difficult to back down simply on the grounds of Banerjee's opposition.
Now, with the three optional names being thrown into the ring, the role that the NDA plays could go a long way towards deciding which way the final outcome goes. Other candidates whose names have surfaced at different points of time – notably Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar – are not ruled out either. India is clearly headed towards the most interesting and, arguably, the most competitive Presidential election in its history. And the result could determine not just who moves into Rashtrapati Bhavan, but also whether the fragile, fractious coalition that the UPA now represents will last the distance till 2014.
Following the announcement of the new names by Banerjee and Yadav, the Congress has decided to call a meet of the UPA allies to reach a consensus on the name of the candidate.
Earlier, the West Bengal Pradesh Congress expressed disappointment over Banerjee not backing the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee for the post of President. "We do not agree with the choice. We prefer Pranab Mukherjee to be the candidate for the president's post," WBPCC president Pradip Bhattacherjee said.
Another senior Congress leader and a minister in the Mamata Banerjee government Manas Bhuniya said, "It is their (Mulayam and Mamata's) decision."
Meanwhile, the Left rejected the candidature of Manmohan Singh and Somnath Chatterjee for the presidential poll. The Left also said that it won't support any candidate proposed by the Congress and its allies. "We are opposed to any candidate put up by the Congress and its allies," said CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta. When asked about the proposed candidature of former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Dasgupta said he was "a strict no".
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