Presidential candidate will be selected in 'true spirit of democracy': Naidu

Venkaiah Naidu, Arun jaitley and Rajnath Singh are in the three-member committee formed on Monday by BJP president Amit Shah to hold consultations the presidential candidate.

New Delhi, Jun 13: The BJP will talk to all political parties to evolve a broad consensus on presidential nominee in the "true spirit of democracy", senior Union minister Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday.

Naidu is part of a three-member committee formed on Monday by BJP president Amit Shah to hold consultations with BJP's allies as well as opposition parties on the presidential candidate for the upcoming poll.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh are the other two members of the BJP committee.

"We have started internal consultations. We are the ruling party and we have to takeeveryone on board and work towards evolving a broad consensus (for a presidential nominee) and seek their support," Naidu said.

Asserting that the exercise will be done in the "true spirit of democracy", he, however, "appealed to all that they should go by the mandate of the people which is for this government".

He also said that he had already spoken to the party chief and in coming days, they (all the committee members) would be talking to leaders of other political parties.

PTI