Presidential Election 2022: Opposition reaches out to Gopalkrishna Gandhi as possible joint candidate

With the Opposition making efforts to put up a united fight in the upcoming presidential election, some leaders have reached out to former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi for the top Constitutional post, reported PTI quoting sources on Tuesday. 

They said that some leaders from the opposition spoke to Gandhi over phone and urged him to consider their request for being the joint opposition candidate for the President post. 

The sources added that that some other names are also being considered and the opposition leaders have reached out to them also to seek their consent.

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

PTI further quoted source saying that Gandhi sought some time from the leaders and will be getting back to them by today. Leaders who talked to him said his initial response to their request was “positive”.

The sources said if he accepts the request, he could emerge as the consensus opposition candidate for the top post, since there already was consensus on his name in the last vice presidential 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.

Meanwhile, TMC president and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already called a mega opposition meeting today to deliberate on a joint candidate for the President post. 

The meeting is being attended by Congress and several other parties, but at the same has been given a miss by K Chandrashekhar Rao’s TRS and Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party. 

Earlier, several opposition leaders had proposed the name of NCP patron Sharad Pawar, but the veteran declined the offer. JD(U) chief and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, too, has clarified that he is not in the race. 

The election to elect a successor to incumbent Ram Nath Kovind would be held on July 18. Kovind had defeated joint opposition nominee Meira Kumar in the last presidential poll.