NEW DELHI: When all eyes are fixed on the presidential polls in July, BJP is quietly garnering its number for the post of Vice-President and the pick could be from the North East.
Opposition parties realise that they don’t have electoral numbers to get a President of their choice. But it is now clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah are trying to create history by getting a Dalit-tribal duo to fill the posts of President and Vice-President of India in July-August.
Modi will not agree to a consensus candidate backed by NDA and the Opposition as this is the first time that a BJP-led government has a majority in the Electoral College to get right-wing candidates in the two top posts. A pick from the North East will serve both the purposes of the ruling NDA since it will combine both tribal and NE region advantages, sources said.
In the last few months, Modi has managed to widen the electoral support base for his choice of candidate with smaller parties like YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh, AIADMK factions in Tamil Nadu. Keeping this in mind, BJP is flirting with the idea of putting former Nagaland Chief Minister S.C Jamir or Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu in the race.
The usual practice is while the President’s post goes to the ruling party the Vice-President’s post is held by the opposition. But this was given up by the first NDA Government when APJ Abdul Kalam was described as a consensus candidate and Bhairon Singh Sekhawat was made the Vice-President.
Secondly, BJP wants to create history by putting tribal and Dalit leaders in the two posts for the first time and market its outreach to Dalits and tribals as genuine. Thus they want to portray opposition parties as anti-Dalit/tribal.
Lastly, this is being done to target the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to widen BJP’s support base. After winning the UP elections, the NDA government has expanded its electoral footprint and BJP rules in 12 of the 29 states on its own and as an alliance partner in Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh.