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Politics and events behind President’s poll: As Babri case simmers in Supreme Court, Opposition parties look to firm up positions

89-year-old LK Advani emerged as a powerful choice in what was being called Narendra Modi’s ‘Guru Dakshina’ to the veteran leader – however, the numbers game in the Rajya Sabha is till not certain there

Presidential election, presidential election 2017, india presidential election, Sonia Gandhi meets Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee meet Naveen Patnaik, Sonia Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee
Other parties are trying their best to stop the saffron surge in the country from taking over the top post in the country too.

As the Presidential elections are coming closer, the parties are looking to firm up their positions and have started not just talking to each other, but their top leaders have conducted preliminary meetings to sound each other out about what they have on their minds. Every political party is busy finalising its strategy but none of them can say that they have taken an initial lead. The Bharatiya Janata Party looked in a good position to get ‘one of its own’ at the top spot after its great show in the 2017 assembly elections and 89-year-old LK Advani emerged as a powerful choice in what was being called Narendra Modi’s ‘Guru Dakshina’ to the veteran leader – however the numbers game in the Rajya Sabha is till not certain there. But Advani’s chances took a major hit when Supreme Court restored the criminal conspiracy charges against him, Murali Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and others in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

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Other parties are trying their best to stop the saffron surge in the country from taking over the top post in the country too. In one such bid, Congress which is struggling for the last couple of years is considering to combine with a familiar face. The Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who is in Delhi right now was invited by Congress President Sonia Gandhi to her residence on Thursday according to The Indian Express. The issue discussed in the meeting was to come together on a single platform to counter BJP’s growing popularity.

Nitish has been calling for the formation of a grand alliance of secular parties at the national level to take on the BJP. He is believed to have raised the same in his meeting with the Congress president keeping in mind the Presidential elections. The activities have quickened in the eastern part of the country as well and the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is on a three-day visit to Odisha met CM Naveen Patnaik.

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During her visit, she urged all the regional parties to unite and move ahead together. While talking to reporters in Puri, on Wednesday, Mamata had said, “All regional parties should come together and move ahead with greater strength, maintaining good relations with each other. Our effort will be to unite them.”

Even though a clear picture is yet to come out about who will occupy Rashtrapati Bhawan after Pranab Mukherjee, these developments have surely provided an interesting script to the Presidential elections.

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First published on: 21-04-2017 at 12:44 IST
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