Editor's Pick: 17 Opposition parties to field a candidate for Presidential poll

Gearing up for the upcoming Presidential elections, 17 Opposition parties attended a meeting hosted by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee in New Delhi on Wednesday. At the end of the 90-minute meeting, the parties came up with a statement expressing their intent to field a common candidate, but no name was finalised. The Trinamool had sent invites to 22 leaders - including eight Chief Ministers (Arvind Kejriwal, Pinarayi Vijayan, Naveen Patnaik, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, M.K. Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray, Hemant Soren and Bhagwant Mann). Leaders representing 17 political parties attended the meeting. The key absentees included the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). The AAP, according to sources, has said it will wait and see whose name emerges and then decide. The TRS remains non-committal. While there was consensus on NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar’s name, he declined the offer. Names of former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah are in contention as the Opposition’s candidate. The next meeting, hosted by Mr. Pawar, will be held on June 20 in New Delhi to finalise the name. None of the other leaders mentioned any names, and towards the close of the meeting, Ms. Banerjee suggested Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Abdullah. The Left had supported Mr. Gandhi’s nomination in the 2017 Presidential election too, but withdrew his name after the Congress pushed for former Speaker Meira Kumar’s candidature. In the meantime, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Mr. Pawar and Ms. Banerjee have been allocated the responsibility of speaking to heads of all Opposition parties. With Ms. Banerjee and Mr. Pawar hosting the two rounds of the meetings on the Presidential election, the Congress has lost the opportunity to lead the consultations despite Congress president Sonia Gandhi being the first to reach out to the Opposition leaders to build a consensus. Mr. Kharge said that Congress had no particular candidate in mind and was willing to back a candidate acceptable to all. The meeting was attended by Mr. Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala from the Congress, DMK MP T.R. Baalu, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, RLD president Jayant Chaudhary, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and senior National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, among other leaders. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor‘s Pick and more. Click here The Hindu’s Editorials Bulldozer on the loose: On demolition of property of Muslim activists Cold comfort: On inflation and government intervention The Hindu’s Daily Quiz The ‘Agnipath’ scheme announced recently is related to recruitment in which sector? Firefighting services Police Armed Forces National Disaster Response Force To find out the answer and play the full quiz, click here [logo] Editor's Pick 16 JUNE 2022 [The Hindu logo] In the Editor's Pick newsletter, The Hindu explains why a story was important enough to be carried on the front page of today's edition of our newspaper. [Arrow]( [Open in browser]( [Mail icon]( [More newsletters]( 17 Opposition parties to field a candidate for Presidential poll Gearing up for the upcoming Presidential elections, [17 Opposition parties attended a meeting hosted by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee]( in New Delhi on Wednesday. At the end of the 90-minute meeting, the parties came up with a statement expressing their intent to field a common candidate, but no name was finalised. The Trinamool had sent invites to 22 leaders - including eight Chief Ministers (Arvind Kejriwal, Pinarayi Vijayan, Naveen Patnaik, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, M.K. Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray, Hemant Soren and Bhagwant Mann). Leaders representing 17 political parties attended the meeting. The key absentees included the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). The AAP, according to sources, has said it will wait and see whose name emerges and then decide. The TRS remains non-committal. While there was consensus on NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar’s name, he declined the offer. Names of former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah are in contention as the Opposition’s candidate. The next meeting, hosted by Mr. Pawar, will be held on June 20 in New Delhi to finalise the name. None of the other leaders mentioned any names, and towards the close of the meeting, Ms. Banerjee suggested Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Abdullah. The Left had supported Mr. Gandhi’s nomination in the 2017 Presidential election too, but withdrew his name after the Congress pushed for former Speaker Meira Kumar’s candidature. In the meantime, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Mr. Pawar and Ms. Banerjee have been allocated the responsibility of speaking to heads of all Opposition parties. With Ms. Banerjee and Mr. Pawar hosting the two rounds of the meetings on the Presidential election, the Congress has lost the opportunity to lead the consultations despite Congress president Sonia Gandhi being the first to reach out to the Opposition leaders to build a consensus. Mr. Kharge said that Congress had no particular candidate in mind and was willing to back a candidate acceptable to all. The meeting was attended by Mr. Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala from the Congress, DMK MP T.R. Baalu, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, RLD president Jayant Chaudhary, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and senior National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, among other leaders. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor‘s Pick and more.  [Click here]( The Hindu’s Editorials [Arrow][Bulldozer on the loose: On demolition of property of Muslim activistsÂ]( [Arrow][Cold comfort: On inflation and government interventionÂ]( The Hindu’s Daily Quiz The ‘Agnipath’ scheme announced recently is related to recruitment in which sector? - Firefighting services - Police - Armed Forces - National Disaster Response Force To find out the answer and play the full quiz, [click here]( Today’s Best Reads [[Cabinet approves mega 5G auction] Cabinet approves mega 5G auction]( [[Myanmar not part of ASEAN meet] Myanmar not part of ASEAN meet]( [[U.S. Federal Reserve attacks inflation with its largest rate hike since 1994] U.S. Federal Reserve attacks inflation with its largest rate hike since 1994]( [[Presidential polls | Rajnath speaks to Pawar, Mamata, Kharge] Presidential polls | Rajnath speaks to Pawar, Mamata, Kharge]( Copyright @ 2022, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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