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Journalism of Courage
Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s unusual step of directly conveying to President K.R. Narayanan that the ruling NDA was not in favour of a second term for him in the name of ‘‘convention’’, has the Left parties crying foul.
From big brother CPI-M to the CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc, every single Left party today accused the BJP of pulling the Presidential election down to the level of petty politics and for ‘‘trying to manipulate the choice of the next President’’.
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BJP non-committal on Kant |
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New Delhi: The BJP on Friday said there was a convention to promote the Vice-President as President, but stopped short of committing itself to the nomination of Krishan Kant to the highest post. When asked by mediapersons if he agreed that there was such a convention that allows the elevation of the Vice-President as President, Krishanmurthy said: ‘‘Yes’’. However, he remained non-comittal about its continuation. ‘‘We have not come to that stage yet. Nothing has been decided on this. The Prime Minister is consulting other parties,’’ he said. ENS |
‘‘After this, there is no question of a supporting an NDA candidate. For us, Narayanan is the best possible candidate and we are working towards building the maximum possible consensus (for his re-election),’’ CPI-M polit bureau member Prakash Karat said.
Taking strong exception to the manner in which the PM conveyed the NDA’s decision to Narayanan, the CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan said, ‘‘Having no grounds to oppose Narayanan and being rattled by so many parties, including the Congress, supporting his candidature, the BJP is trying preempt the entire issue by talking of a non-existent convention.’’
Miffed with the latest development, Bardhan also said the Left parties would concentrate on persuading Narayanan to contest and the Electoral College to support him. Pointing to the fact that the TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu has not revealed his cards, Bardhan said: ‘‘They are talking about consensus, how can there be a consensus on a non-existent name from their (the NDA) side?’’
