Former president Pranab Mukherjee to be the Prime ministerial candidate for 2019 ?
NEW DELHI: As former president Pranab Mukherjee is set to be the chief guest at an RSS event next month, a new theory has started doing rounds . This sudden move is seen by many as a clear indication that Citizen Mukherjee -- as he calls himself on Twitter -- is asserting an identity independent of the Congress, his party for over five decades.
NDTV's Sunetra Choudhury has reported that she has spoken to a wide range of politicians across party lines who confirmed that the 82-year-old is playing a significant role in bringing non-Congress, non-BJP leaders together to form an alternative front ahead of 2019. Some of those leaders went as far as to pitch the former president as a potential prime ministerial candidate in 2019. They point to talks that Mr Mukherjee has been having with political leaders who have met him at his official bungalow in Delhi.
It all began with a low-key meeting held in Bhubaneswar in January at the home of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the chief of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). Mr Patnaik had invited the leaders for the launch of a biography of his father Biju Patnaik. Unlike other high-profile dinners hosted recently by Sonia Gandhi or NCP leader Sharad Pawar, this one was revealed in a tweet showing Pranab Mukherjee, Janata Dal Secular's Deve Gowda, Left leader Sitaram Yechury and BJP veteran LK Advani having lunch with Mr Patnaik.
But sources have told NDTV it was one of the first meetings that set the ball rolling on a potential Third Front.
Many others say the starting point was a much earlier meeting at Rashtrapati Bhawan last year when Chief Minister Patnaik had lunch with Pranab Mukherjee and then they dialled another "Third Front" player, Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
Since it involves a former president, none of the leaders NDTV spoke to wanted to speak on record. But key leaders in the Congress, BJP, Trinamool and the BJD have confirmed the developments.
"He is very political and he may be the only one with the stature to match Prime Minister Narendra Modi," said a BJD MP. "And he is open to playing a key role as a non-NDA pole position," he added.
Often described as the "prime minister India never had", Mr Mukherjee has documented how he was passed over for the job in 2004 in his book The Coalition Years. He shares that he thought then Congress president Sonia Gandhi would choose him and make Manmohan Singh, the president.
"I returned with a vague impression that she might wish to consider Manmohan Singh as the UPA presidential nominee. I thought that if she selected Singh for the presidential office, she may choose me as the prime minister. I had heard a rumour that she had given this formulation serious thought while on a holiday in the Kaushambi Hills." That didn't happen. But this was not the first let-down in his years in the Congress.
The veteran Congressman had to spend some years away from the party after a falling out with Rajiv Gandhi in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's death in 1984.
In 2012, when his name was first proposed for President, it was Mamata Banerjee who supported him wholeheartedly , backed also by the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
A senior BJP minister tracking the developments with interest believes Ms Banerjee's recent overtures to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) of K Chandrasekhara Rao are also backed by Mr Mukherjee. "Whatever Mamata is doing is on behalf of Pranab Mukherjee," he said. "They are trying to create a front that will determine India's future in the next five years. The idea is that one of them will be prime minister."
NDTV tried to get an official comment from his office but they were unavailable.
Courtesy : NDTV
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J&K polls: Amit Shah arrives in Jammu ahead of Saturday's hectic campaigning
Jammu (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived in Jammu on Friday night ahead of the hectic day-long campaigning on Saturday during which he will address five public rallies in three districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Shah arrived here from Delhi and drove straight to the State Guest house, a senior BJP leader said.
Shah will fly to Poonch early tomorrow morning and address the first of four rallies in Mendhar followed by Surankote in Poonch district, he added.
Shah is scheduled to address rallies in Thanamandi and Rajouri followed by Akhnoor in Jammu.
He is also expected to hold a rally in the Nowshera constituency in support of Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina on Sunday.
