Sharad Pawar to head opposition’s Presidential ‘search panel’

NEW DELHI: NCP supremo Sharad Pawar will head a sub-committee of leaders that will micromanage and co-ordinate the Opposition’s preparation for the presidential and vice-presidential polls.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is learnt to have persuaded Pawar to accept the responsibility of Opposition coordination. Pawar is slated to meet some Opposition leaders during the next two days as he gets down to the task.

The formation of the panel follows the meeting of 17 Opposition parties who authorised Sonia Gandhi to set up such a panel. The names of other members in the panel are being finalised.

Those expected to be in the panel include Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, Sharad Yadav of JDU and Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee or her nominee.

It remains to be seen whether Rahul Gandhi and Nitish Kumar will have any ex-officio role in the Opposition panel The Congress and some other Opposition parties have been keen that Pawar become the joint presidential candidate, something about which he has been reluctant so far, if the government rejects the Opposition’s pitch for a consensus candidate with ‘secular credentials’.

The Opposition is keen to wait and watch the BJP-led NDA’s moves, including its candidates for the two top constitutional posts.

The Pawar panel is expected to begin consultations with maximum possible Opposition parties in zeroing in on its nominees as parties expect the notification for the presidential poll to be made by June 15.

While NDA has a clear upper hand in the electoral college for electing President and vice-president, the Opposition is using the elections as a platform to build a larger unity of Opposition parties with an eye on propping up an anti-BJP grand alliance for the 2019 polls.