New Delhi: With the presidential election just weeks away, the Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Monday formed a three-member panel of senior ministers to start consulting allies on the next president.
Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu are part of the panel that will build consensus around BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s candidate.
“The committee’s mandate is to consult leaders of all political parties for the presidential poll and try to evolve a consensus. They will consult regional parties and other stakeholders on an NDA [National Democratic Alliance] candidate,” a BJP statement said.
Shah put off a visit to Arunachal Pradesh for discussions on the presidential elections.
Till date, no party has come up with a presidential candidate. Hectic political parleys are on but Opposition parties are yet to announce the name of a presidential candidate.
Sources in Congress indicated the Opposition parties are waiting for the ruling party to announce its candidate. Earlier, the BJP indicated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would like to choose a nominee acceptable to NDA allies.
Meanwhile, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has been holding discussions with Opposition parties regarding this matter.
The Congress Working Committee chaired by Gandhi met in New Delhi last week to discuss the presidential poll.
In the last week of May, Gandhi had invited Opposition leaders for a luncheon. However, the leaders failed to arrive at any consensus.
The term of the country’s 13th President, Pranab Mukherjee, will end on July 24.
The presidential election will be held on July 17 and counting of votes will take place on July 20. The Election Commission said the filing of nominations will begin on June 14 and the last date will be June 28.
Scrutiny will take place on June 29 and the last date for withdrawal is July 1.
