Brij Bhardwaj
With choice of Droupadi Murmu as Presidential candidate, BJP has received support from all political parties A tribal and woman has her own appeal and many parties including some in the opposition ranks have announced that they would be voting for her. They include Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik , Akali Dal and United Janata Dal. Latest to join ranks of her supporters is Jharkhand leader JMM chairman Shibu Soren whose party is in power with support of Congress.
Even Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal who had taken lead in bringing opposition parties on a common platform to give fight to B JP candidate for office of President of India and selected her party man Yashwant Sinha as opposition nominee for office of President of India said that in case BJP had told them about choice of tribal leader for office of President of India they could have made a unanimous choice.
This is not first time that BJP had been able to put opposition parties in a corner by selecting a candidate for presidentship who had universal appeal. This was the case with Dr Abdul Kalam, a scientist and who led the programme to build missiles in India. He proved to be a popular President with mass appeal with special love for children even though he was a bachelor. Opposition parties had to accept the choice of Dr Kalam for presidentship and support him.
The Congress candidate for presidentship Pranab Mukerjee also received support from all political parties including BJP,. even though he had been a Minister for decades holding important portfolios like finance and Commerce , He was acceptable to all. The Choice of current nominee falls in same category. I will not be surprised if she would get more opposition leaders to support her in presidential race instead of opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Among the opposition parties Aam Aadmi Party is yet to decide.. It was not invited to the meeting of opposition leaders where a decision was taken to field an opposition candidate for office of President of India.
There is a general feeling that the office of President atleast should not be a subject of controversy. Many constitutional offices like office of Governors, Election Commissioners and controller general of audits and accounts have become controversial during recent times.
For the sake of smooth working of democracy the office of President, Judges of top Courts and defence forces chiefs should not be controversial and be acceptable to all political parties. It would have been better if consultations had taken place between ruling party and opposition parties before the names of the candidates were declared.. Ruling BJP has done well to choose one who is a tribal and a woman belonging to a community who are backward and deprived . In the process the choice has met with approval of large sections of people including many in the opposition ranks.
There will be a contest for office of President of India as opposition parties have decided to field Yashwant Sinha as a candidate but one hopes that there will be no bitterness after the polls. . After elections I am sure she would meet with general approval and would set a new trend and add dignity and honour to high office of President of India. It is not only a ceremonial post but also plays a role as supreme Commander of forces with ability to guide and advice council of Ministers.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
