Government to evolve consensus on presidential candidate: Naidu

BJP President Amit Shah on Tuesday held discussions with senior ministers Rajnath Singh, M. Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley, who comprise the three-member team constituted by him to evolve consensus with other parties on the presidential candidate.

"We have today (Tuesday) begun the process by discussing within. We had a discussion with President Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. We also talked to (Home Minister) Rajnathji, who is in Mizoram. In the coming days, we will be talking among ourselves and then to other political parties. We will meet them and discuss with them and will try our best to garner their support," Naidu told a press conference later.

He said the government side will talk to all political parties and make all efforts to evolve a "broad consensus" on the candidate and sought the cooperation of the opposition parties in this regard.

Naidu was replying to a question whether the government would reach out to opposition parties to evolve a consensus on the presidential candidate.

"We have just started the process because we are the ruling party and we have the responsibility to take every one on board. So, we will make our efforts in the direction to evolve a broad consensus and then also try to seek support... that is what we are going to do.

"It will be done in true spirit of democracy. Going by the mandate of the people ... and the mandate of people is for the government ... I appeal to all to understand that spirit and try to cooperate. We will be discussing with them to try to find out what their suggestions are," Naidu said.

The term of President Pranab Mukherjee gets over on July 24 and the process of electing a new President gets under way from Wednesday with the issue of notification in this regard.

--IANS

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