Presidential candidate consensus: Mamata's attempt may prove futile

However, the name of NCP Supremo and 'artichect' of 'Tri-cycle' MVA government in Maharashtra was doing the rounds but could not be reached at any consensus as Pawar himself did not exhibit any interest. Moreover, his trusted lieutenants in the home state did not favor his contesting the national election as they felt that his guidance is more required in the state than at the national level.

Names of former J & K Chief Minister Dr. Farooq Abdulla and Gopal Krishna Gandhi, former Governor of West Bengal were also discussed but no decision could be reached. The TMC Supremo had invited 22 leaders including 8 Chief Ministers - Arvind Kejriwal, Pinarayi Vijayan, Navin Patnaik, K Chandrasekhar Rao, M K Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray, Hemant Soren, and Bhagwant Mann. However, the Aam Aadmi Party leaders and TRS did not attend the meeting as AAP wanted to wait and watch while the TRS remained non-committal.

The next meeting of the opposition party leaders will be held on June 20, to decide on the opposition candidate. The NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar has hosted this meeting.

However, the whole exercise seems to be targeted at negating the Congress its due role as the largest opposition party in the Parliament in the selection of the joint candidate for the presidency. Both Mamta Banerjee and Sharad Pawar had already started parleys with the opposition leaders and thus denied the opportunity to the Congress party notwithstanding the name of senior party leader Mallikarjuna Kharge being included in the list of leaders to hold such talks.

Thus Congress has lost the opportunity to lead the consensus on presidential candidates in spite of Sonia Gandhi initiating the exercise much earlier. Kharge indicated that the Congress did not have anyone in mind as presidential probable and hence was ready to extend support to the consensus candidate of the opposition.

At the opposition meeting, Mamta Banerjee was more concerned with pushing her leadership than taking it  all along with her. The entire exercise apparently seemed to keep Congress at bay from leading the anti-BJP bloc. She did try this in the past but could not succeed and this time also she is about to lose the race. The attendance at the meeting indicated this probable failure of her attempt to show the one-upmanship over Congress.

The Wednesday meeting was attended by Mallikarjuna Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala from the Congress, DMK MP T. R. Baalu, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, RLD President Jayant Chaudhary, PDP President Mehbooba Mufti, and senior National Conference leader and former J & K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah besides other leaders. However, there was no representation of the Northeastern states in this meeting.
This exercise may not lead to fruitful results as expected by Mamta Banerjee because there are a number of other ambitious aspirants in the opposition camp who are eager to grab the leadership of the non-BJP opposition. For example, Arvind Kejriwal of AAP or M K Stalin of DMK. K. Chandrasekhar Rao of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Sharad Pawar of NCP are also in the queue and they are sure to stop Mamta from assuming this premier role.

The most important factor is the most limited political influence of these leaders. None of them enjoys the all India acceptability as Narendra Modi does. They are powerful in their respective states but when it comes to leading or representing at the national level, they stand nowhere. This is true in the case of Mamta and all other leaders. They cannot cross their geographical boundaries however they try simply because they lack the pan-Indian outlook.
That is why when she proposed the name of Sharad Pawar, it found minimum takers which forced her to propose the names of Farooq Abdulla and Gopal Krishna Gandhi. But her pre-drafted resolution deploring the Narendra Modi government and the BJP was turned down and only one para resolution concentrating on the issue of presidential elections was considered.

In contrast to this, the BJP has launched the exercise of reaching out to all opposition parties to build a consensus on the presidential candidate and to have the election unopposed. In doing so, the party leadership has exhibited its political acumen and maturity which Mamta Banerjee sincerely lacked.

The BJP has already held discussions with the Meghalaya Chief Minister, the leaders of the Naga People's Front in Nagaland, the Mizo National Front in Mizoram and other parties, MPs, and MLAs of the northeastern region.
Mamta Banerjee earlier also had opposed the candidature of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam some two decades ago. But that proved to be futile. This time suppose the joint opposition candidate if at all she succeeds in reaching a consensus, fails to win - and there is every possibility of this - she will lose her political clout at the national level again and her effort to project her as the national leader is bound to fail.