'Active political innings to play': At Opposition meeting, Sharad Pawar refuses to run for President

A crucial meeting of opposition parties convened by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) suupremo Mamata Banerjee to build consensus on fielding a joint candidate against the NDA in the presidential election was held on Wednesday with leaders of 17 parties in attendance.

Leaders of the Congress, Samajwadi Party, NCP, DMK, RJD, Shiv Sena, CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), National Conference, PDP, JD(S), RSP, IUML, RLD, JMM and the Left parties attended the meeting, while the AAP, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Odisha's ruling BJD skipped it.

Meanwhile, at the meeting, NCP chief Sharad Pawar has once again refused to run for President, saying "he still has active political innings to play", reported NDTV.

Earlier, the Free Press Journal had reported that Pawar told his party ministers and senior leaders that he is not keen to be opposition’s candidate for Presidential polls.

An NCP Minister, who was present at the meeting chaired by Pawar in Mumbai, told the Free Press Journal, ‘’Our party president today made it amply clear that he is not prepared to be the opposition’s Presidential candidate. Instead, he has said that he will engage in a dialogue with opposition and like-minded parties to firm up a united strategy and a consensus candidate for the Presidential election against BJP. Our president also said that NCP has very few MPs and legislators in the country and the party will support the candidate finalised by opposition and like-minded parties.’’

Meanwhile, the name of former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi is doing the rounds as a possible choice for the Opposition's candidate for presidential polls.

Gandhi was the consensus opposition candidate for the post of Vice President of India in 2017 but had lost to M Venkaiah Naidu in the election.

The 77-year-old former bureaucrat has also served as India's High Commissioner to South Africa and Sri Lanka. He is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari.

Asked about his name doing the rounds as a possible choice for the Opposition's candidate for presidential polls, Gandhi told news agency PTI, "It is too premature to comment on it."