The NDA appears to have strengthened its prospects of getting its choice of candidate for the upcoming presidential polls elected to the post, with some good news coming from the southern parties of YSR Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week and pledged his support to “any candidate” put forward by the NDA. That he also presented Mr. Modi with a copy of a book wherein his party had detailed various reported acts of omission and commission by NDA ally N. Chandrababu Naidu’s government in Andhra Pradesh discomfited the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) but as of now, the BJP is treading a non-committal line.
Yet another party opposed to the TDP, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), too indicated that it was positively disposed towards the NDA camp on the issue of presidential polls. Its Lok Sabha MP Jithendra Reddy said last week that the “TRS has always engaged with the NDA government at the Centre with reference to issues that would be beneficial to the State of Telangana” and that it would take a call on the NDA’s candidate when it would be asked.
Buying peace
Sources in the party confirmed that the TRS was inclined to buy some peace with the NDA as not just the TDP but the BJP itself was getting very aggressive in the State. “This would buy us some goodwill,” said a source.
As far as the mathematics of the polls go, this puts the NDA in clover. The electoral college for the presidential polls is made up of weighted votes of all 4,120 State legislators and 776 Members of Parliament. The NDA with 410 MPs (both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) and 1,691 legislators, has a total of 5,32,019 votes out of a total of 10,98,882 votes. The coalition is around 18,000 short of majority at the moment. The YSR Congress has 16,848 votes and the TRS 22,048, thus the significance of these overtures of support cannot be understated.
Sources in the BJP say that the Prime Minister may not opt for a non-politician for a candidate as former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee did. “The numbers situation assures us that we can, for the first time, get someone with allegiance to the BJP ideology elected as President,” said a source.
The other crucial set of votes that the NDA desires is that of the AIADMK, which has a weighted number of 59,224 votes.
‘Ready for challenge’
The Opposition Congress, along with Janata Dal (U) leader Sharad Yadav and Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, has been trying for a consensus candidate. BJP sources, when asked whether they could arrive at a consensus with the Opposition, ruled it out.
“The Opposition is showing no signs of giving consideration to the numbers situation as it exists, where we are in a position to get our man elected. Since they have already decided to contest, we will be meeting that challenge,” said a senior BJP office-bearer. The presidential polls are due in July.
