Leaders of several opposition parties on Wednesday urged Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar to be the joint opposition candidate for the Presidential elections, but the veteran leader once again declined the offer at a meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in New Delhi.
As the Opposition held its first meeting on the Presidential polls and names of Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi also cropped up, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to several parties across the political spectrum to build a consensus choice with senior party leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaking to Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Naveen Patnaik (Biju Janata Dal).
Sources said Singh also talked to BJP ally and Janata Dal-United leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Reddy.
BJP chief J P Nadda spoke to leaders from the National Conference, National People's Party, Naga People's Front, All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) and some independents.
The BJP has authorised Singh and Nadda to consult with other parties for building a consensus.
Incidentally Kharge, Banerjee, Pawar and Yadav were part of the opposition meeting on the Presidential polls.
After Pawar, 81, declined the offer, Banerjee later suggested the names of NC leader Farooq Abdullah, a former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, and Gopalkrishna Gandhi as a possible opposition candidate, sources said.
Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the 77-year-old grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, was the consensus opposition candidate for the post of Vice President of India in 2017 but had lost to M Venkaiah Naidu in the election.
Asked about his name doing the rounds as a possible choice as the Opposition's candidate, Gandhi told PTI, "It is too premature to comment on it."
According to sources, Gandhi, who was Governor of West Bengal from 2004 to 2009, has sought some time from opposition leaders to respond to their request.
While the Congress said it will play a constructive role in ensuring all opposition parties arrive at a consensus candidate for the Presidential polls, and urged them to be proactive rather than reactive in making the decision, regional rivalries came to the fore as some non-BJP parties like the Aam Aadmi Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the Biju Janata Dal skipped the opposition meeting.
The absence of these parties brought some cheer to the ruling BJP as it believes that this has only highlighted the faultlines and one-upmanship among its rivals.
With the ruling NDA having about close to half the votes of the electoral college and the possible support of fence-sitters like the BJD, AIADMK and YSR, its candidate is likely to sail through the contest.
The process to file nominations for the Presidential elections, meanwhile, began on Wednesday with the Election Commission issuing a notification calling upon the electors to fill the vacancy. Eleven people filing their nominations on the first day. The election is scheduled to be held on July 18.
As many as 17 opposition parties attended the opposition meeting to build a consensus on fielding a joint candidate against the BJP-led NDA.
They will meet again on June 20-21 which will be convened by Pawar in Mumbai.
The leaders at the opposition meeting adopted a resolution saying, 'in the forthcoming Presidential elections held in the year of the 75th anniversary of Indian independence, we have decided to field a common candidate who will truly serve as the custodian of the constitution and stop the Modi government from doing further damage to India's social fabric and democracy'.
"There will be one consensus candidate. All parties gave unanimous consensus for Sharad Pawarji, but he has said no. He said he is not interested," Banerjee told reporters.
Leaders of the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left parties attended the over two-hour-long meeting.
Leaders of the Shiv Sena, the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist, the National Conference, the People's Democratic Party, the Janata Dal-Secular, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Indian Union Muslim League, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha were also among those who participated.
DMK leader T R Baalu told reporters that some leaders have requested that Kharge, Pawar and Banerjee negotiate and discuss the issue of a consensus opposition candidate with all non-BJP parties.
RJD's Manoj Jha, however, said the leaders would convince Pawar to reconsider the offer as he was the right candidate.
CPI's Binoy Viswam said, "There was consensus in the meeting that there should be only one candidate who is acceptable to all".
He said only Sharad Pawar's name came up during the meeting.
However, RSP's N K Premchandra said Banerjee later suggested the names of Abdullah and Gandhi.
Kharge said his party has no particular candidate in mind for the polls, and that it will sit together with other parties to arrive at a name acceptable to all.
He said the consensus opposition candidate for the highest constitutional post in the country should be someone committed to uphold the Constitution and preserve the secular fabric of 'our diverse society and speak out boldly against the forces of prejudice, hatred, bigotry and polarisation'.
Kharge said as Congress President Sonia Gandhi is unwell and has been hospitalised, she has asked him to speak to leaders of various parties opposed to the 'divisive and destructive policies of the RSS/BJP' to explore the possibility of a joint opposition candidate for the presidential election.
The leaders who attended Wednesday's meeting included Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel of the NCP, Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala of the Congress, H D Deve Gowda and H D Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal-Secular, Akhilesh Yadav of the SP, Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP and Omar Abdullah of the National Conference.
Banerjee last week invited leaders of 19 political parties, including seven chief ministers, for the meeting in the national capital to produce a 'confluence of opposition voices' for the July 18 polls.
A day ahead of the meeting, Banerjee and Left party leaders had met Pawar at his residence separately to try and convince him to be the common opposition candidate for the top constitutional post.
