Congress' snub to Kejriwal, no invite for meeting on presidential candidate

Nitish Kumar earlier backed a second term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee, but the Congress has remained non-committal on this.

In a lunch hosted by the Congress to discuss on presidential candidate, AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has not been invited.

The meeting on Friday, called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will be attended by top opposition leaders including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Reports say that RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav will also attend the meeting while Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will send a representative. It is not yet certain if BSP Mayawati will attend the meeting herself or send a representative.

Former Bengal governor and Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi's name was in the news as the opposition's choice for presidential candidate. Sometime back, NCP chief Sharad Pawar's name was also doing rounds, but he reportedly declined Sonia's offer to be the candidate.

The talk of a consensus candidate gained momentum after Nitish Kumar backed a second term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee, though the Congress so far has been non-committal on a second term for him. Mukherjee's term comes to an end on July 14 and the polls need to be held before that.

The BJP on the other hand is yet to announce a candidate. Several names have been doing the rounds which include Jharkhand Governor, Draupadi Murmu. The name of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat too had cropped up, but he has ruled himself out of the race. The BJP is short of 20,000 electoral college votes and would need the support of the AIADMK and the BJD to elect a candidate of its choice as the next President of India.

OneIndia News