New Delhi | The competition to choose the next president has intensified with the Election Commission announcing the presidential election scheduled on Thursday. Both the government and the opposition are considering fielding their candidates. Names being sought by the government for the post of President include Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Governors Tamilisai Sundararajan (Telangana), Jagadish Mukhi (Assam), Anusuiya Uikey (Chhattisgarh) and Arif Mohammad Khan (Kerala) and Jharkhand. Former Governor Draupadi Murmu is involved.
While veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad is considered a ‘black horse’ from both sides, having decades of experience as a Union minister in the central government and the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir in the state. Apart from these, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, who is from Scheduled Caste, and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar could emerge as the opposition candidates.
There is also a possibility that Pawar with his long political experience may emerge as the joint opposition candidate. He has been the Chief Minister of Maharashtra thrice and the Defense and Agriculture Minister at the Centre. Beyond party lines, he has good relations with all opposition parties except the BJP.
Pawar, who founded the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 1999 after splitting from the Congress, is currently a Rajya Sabha member. He was the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the President of the International Cricket Council from 2005 to 2008.
Meira Kumar, who has been a Union Minister and Lok Sabha and has contested the Presidential elections in the past, could be the candidate from Congress.
Many names are being discussed by the government, but it is also believed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can bring any such name as he had made Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind as the presidential candidate in 2017.
Venkaiah Naidu is another strong prospect. He started his career as an MLA in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1983. He was elected a member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 1998. He served as a Union minister in both the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and then the Narendra Modi government.
Kerala Governor Khan can be a choice to showcase the inclusive side of the government, while he has been a vocal supporter of the government’s policies on various issues.
Beginning his political career as a student leader, he became the President of the Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union in 1972–23, before his political debut in 1977, when he was elected to the UP Legislative Assembly. He later joined the Congress and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kanpur in 1980 and from Bahraich in 1984. In 1986, he left Congress over differences over the passage of the Muslim Personal Law Bill by the Rajiv Gandhi government that nullified the Shah Bano decision.
Khan joined the Janata Dal and was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1989 and V.P. Served as the Minister of Civil Aviation and Energy in Singh’s government. He later joined the Bahujan Samaj Party and was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Bahraich in 1998. In 2004, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but rose to prominence only after he was appointed the Governor of Kerala in 2019.
