Opposition party leaders appear to have shortlisted two names, Pranab Mukherjee and Sharad Pawar, for the upcoming presidential poll. The parties have been involved in hectic parleys, steered by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Nationalist Congress Party supremo Pawar, according to a key source in the Opposition, is willing to contest if there is unity among the Opposition parties.

The Opposition believes that if Pawar is the candidate, he can reach out to the Shiv Sena, which, in fact, has already announced its support for him.

The chances of the incumbent, Mukherjee, getting a second term may well hinge on the BJP. A section of the Opposition believes that if the BJP agrees, a second term for the sitting president is possible.

No President other than the first, Babu Rajendra Prasad, has had a second term. Also, there is no precedence of an incumbent contesting a presidential poll.

As part of the Opposition consultations, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday in Bhubaneswar. A senior BJD leader told BusinessLine after the meeting that leaders from various parties have been meeting with Patnaik on the Presidential election.

There are 4,896 voters in the electoral college for the presidential election, with a total of 10,98,882 votes. The ruling NDA is about 20,000 votes short of the 5,49,442 votes required for a majority.

It has more than five lakh votes, including those of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena and People’s Democratic Party.