BJP floats Murli Manohar Joshi as Vice President in Prez deal with UPA

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The BJP is toying with the idea of bargaining for the vice-president’s post with the Congress in return for supporting Pranab Mukherjee veteran Congress leader for Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Sources said the BJP is considering the name of senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi for vice-president.

It seems BJP has realised the futility of fielding a presidential candidate of its own given the growing support for the prospective candidature of finance minister.

Top BJP leader Sushma Swaraj had said earlier the party would not back a Congress candidate as it did not want to be seen hobnobbing with the ruling coalition with the 2014 general elections approaching.

But given the increasing support for Mukherjee across the political spectrum, it appears to be having second thoughts. UPA allies like the DMK, NCP and RLD have indicated they would support Mukherjee and the Left seems to have no reservations.

It is believed the Trinamul Congress too will eventually come around as it cannot afford to oppose a Bengali reaching the country’s highest office. More important, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadis, Mayawati’s BSP and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD are expected to endorse the Congress nominee.

With Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK and Naveen Patnaik’s BJD rooting for former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma (of the NCP), the BJP’s options are getting limited. So instead of fielding a candidate who will certainly lose, it is hoping to do a deal with the Congress under which it can at least wrest the vice-presidency.

‘Maximum consensus key to Prez poll’

Even as the suspense over the UPA’s presidential nominee continues, the Congress-led coalition on Sunday made it clear that the candidate will be selected on the basis of 'maximum' consensus among allies while the main Opposition BJP predicted the results this time would be 'surprising'.

The non-UPA parties will work on their strategy on the presidential election once the Congress announces its candidate for the top post, expectedly during the next week.

Law minister Salman Khurshid said in Chennai on Sunday that the UPA leadership would take the maximum amount of consensus from its allies in selecting the candidate for the post of President, who must carry the conviction and support of as many political parties as possible.

“We are in the process. You will get a very good candidate. Our senior leadership is looking at the names and the leadership is in touch with all alliance partners,” Khurshid.

The maximum amount of consensus for selecting the candidate would be taken, he said.

“I am sure we will have an outstanding candidate. Because the President of India must be a person who carries the conviction and support of as many political parties as possible. We hope to present such a candidate to the country,” he said.

Former Union minister and BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said his party would disclose its strategy on presidential elections only after the ruling UPA coalition announces name of its candidate. Until the ruling Congress party announces its name, the BJP would keep its cards close to its chest, he said in Hyderabad.

He remained tightlipped to a query whether the BJP would support finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature, saying, “Let the Congress party first name the candidate for the post, then only our party will disclose the strategy.”

Stating that this time the presidential elections would be 'interesting', he said it was not necessary that the ruling party candidate would be the winner. “This time the presidential election results would be surprising and our party is working on this strategy,” he said.