Former Delhi Metro chief E Sreedharan
Amid reports that E Sreedharan would be NDA’s potential candidate for the forthcoming presidential poll, the former Delhi Metro chief on Friday flatly refused any such development and insisted that he doesn’t harbour any such intention. “No reality in it, no discussions take place; don’t long for it,” Sreedharan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Earlier in the day, the government reached out to the opposition with an aim to stitch a consensus on the official nominee for next president with Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and M Venkaiah Naidu meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. However, the meeting turned out to be inconclusive as no names were put forward by either side.
Reflecting on the discussion, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the BJP leaders did not propose any name and instead sought cooperation on the presidential election. “We expected that BJP leaders will come up with some name, one or more, for the post of president of India, so that the Congress party could take a call on that. But nothing of that happened. BJP leaders did not propose any name and instead asked us the names,” Azad said after the meeting.
A three-member committee of senior leaders-Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Naidu–has been entrusted with the task of meeting opposition leaders and reach a consensus. Since no party has officially disclosed their nominee on the issue yet, a contest for the coveted post looks likely.
Amond the names which have been doing the rounds include Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former West Bengal governor and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, as well as Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav and former speaker Meira Kumar.
The presidential elections will be held on July 17 and counting will be on July 20. The term of incumbent President Pranab Mukherjee ends on July 24.
With inputs from Agencies.
