UPA did not try to build consensus,says Advani

I hold that the answer to this question depends entirely on the attitude of the ruling party.

Taking on the critics of the BJPs decision to support P A Sangma in the Presidential polls,L K Advani on Monday said the onus for building a consensus on the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee was on the ruling UPA leadership,which made no such effort.

Advani said in his latest blog posting: In political circles,it is fashionable these days to raise the question: should not an election to this high constitutional office be a unanimous one,based on consensual agreement arrived at between Government and the Opposition? This question, according to him,is often hurled at us in the BJP,as if by deciding to support Sangma,sponsored by two eminent Chief Ministers,against Congresss Pranab Mukherjee,we are doing something improper. I hold that the answer to this question depends entirely on the attitude of the ruling party.

He said for several decades after Independence,the Congress voteshare in the electoral college had been so overwhelming that I presume they never even thought of consulting the Opposition. The NDA,he said,had acted in complete contrast to this when in 2002,as the ruling coalition,it thought of fielding A P J Abdul Kalam as its candidate for Presidency. Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke to Soniaji and Mulayam Singh and brought them on board to support the NDA candidate. It was the Left Front,however,that chose to put up Lakshmi Sahgal against our nominee.

The senior BJP leader pointed out that out of the 13 elections held till now,it was only once,in 1977,that the then ruling Janata Party nominee,Neelam Sanjiva Reddy,was elected unopposed.

In all other cases,there was an election even where the ruling partys candidate was of the stature and eminence of Rajendra Prasad,Radhakrishnan or Zakir Hussain, he said.

The BJP Parliamentary Party chairman said he had received a phone call from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his partys support for Mukherjee within minutes of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi announcing his candidature. My comment was: You are now only informing us; would it not have been better if you had consulted the Opposition before making the announcement? His reaction was: Well,it is never too late to mend.