Presidential Polls: Pawar Declines Offer, Oppn To Field Consensus Candidate

New Delhi: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday refused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s offer to be the Opposition Presidential candidate, NDTV reported.

Pawar (81) told her that he “still has an active political innings to play”.

He made his decision official at a meeting called by Banerjee on Wednesday to decide on a joint candidate for the Presidential election. At least 17 parties, including Congress, Samajwadi Party, NCP, DMK, RJD and the Left parties, attended the meeting at the Constitution Club of India in New Delhi.

The AAP, TRS, SAD and Odisha’s ruling BJD stayed away from the meeting.

Opposition leaders adopted a resolution to field a common candidate in the Presidential election, Banerjee said after the meeting.

“Several parties were here today. We’ve decided we will choose only one consensus candidate. Everybody will give this candidate our support. We will consult with others. This is a good beginning. We sat together after several months, and we will do it again,” said Banerjee.

Other than Pawar, no other name has been proposed so far. With the NCP chief declining the offer, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, has emerged as the choice of the Left.

Congress, Shiv Sena, CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), National Conference, PDP, JD(S), RSP, IUML, RLD and JMM are attending the meeting, among others.

Besides Banerjee and Pawar, those present at the meeting include Praful Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Surjewala, H D Deve Gowda, H D Kumaraswamy, Akhilesh Yadav, Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah.