November 26, 2025

Who Will Be The Next President Of India?

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-06-14 06:13:01

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

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With the Election Commission having announced the dates for the Presidential elections, political activity around the event has firmed up. While the BJP is keeping its cards close to its heart, several opposition leaders, mainly West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and NCP leader Sharad Pawar are taking the lead to bring the opposition parties together and put up a common and strong candidate.

There are several names being bandied about as the NDA candidate but the persistent and strong buzz is in favour of Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan. There is also a buzz that the BJP might nominate vice president Venkaiah Naidu. None of the senior BJP leaders, including party president J P Nadda, home minister Amit Shah or defence minister Rajnath Singh have given a hint of what the party is thinking.

For the opposition, there was a rumour that Sharad Pawar might emerge as a consensus candidate. Although he could have been a very strong contender, Pawar has scotched the rumours and categorically said he is not a candidate. Instead the NCP has said that they are in favour of having Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad as the opposition candidate. Both Mamata Banerjee and KCR have not spelled out who they would back as the opposition candidate.

The position as of now is that the NDA is falling short of around 1.2 percent of votes and parties like the BJD and the YSRCP hold the key. If both these parties support the NDA, it will sail through. As of now, the YSRCP is veering around to support the NDA candidate while the BJD has not made any commitment. But the BJP is likely to 'manage' the affairs and despite the hectic activity in the opposition camp, is likely to get its candidate elected.