Why Karunanidhi's birthday is yet another platform for the Opposition to join hands

With the date for the presidential poll fast approaching, Opposition parties are witnessing a flurry of activity to ensure a consensus candidate is zeroed down upon soon.

Days after nine Opposition parties agreed to unite to fight fascist forces during the 95th birth anniversary of socialist leader Madhu Limaye, yet another birthday celebration would see opposition leaders getting together to chalk out a common strategy to take on a resurgent BJP, including discussions on the presidential nominee.

The birthday get-together

DMK leader Kanimozhi has been meeting politicians from opposition parties inviting them for the grand celebrations of party patriarch M Karunanidhi's 93rd birthday on 3 June. It was in this regard that Kanimozhi met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and invited her for the same. During Kanimozhi's meeting with the Congress president, she handed a letter by DMK's working president MK Stalin. 

Earlier on 5 May, she met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and invited the duo for the celebrations in Chennai. Both the leaders have agreed to be in Tamil Nadu's capital to celebrate Karunanidhi's birthday. Moreover, the Bihar chief minister even spoke at length with Stalin during the meeting which is said to have lasted two hours.

Among other leaders who have been approached by the DMK include CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, JD(S) leader and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda.

Karunanidhi's birthday celebrations would present yet another opportunity to leaders of the opposition to share a platform and discuss the way ahead to stop the BJP juggernaut. Interestingly, it is for the first time that such a meeting is being initiated by a southern party.

Till now, it is primarily the north Indian parties that have been discussing possibility of joining hands to defeat the BJP in 2019.

During Limaye's birthday celebrations, several leaders had reiterated the need for political parties to come together who also pointed that the presidential elections would be an acid test for the opposition unity. And it is almost certain that this issue would come up for discussion during the celebrations in Chennai.

The presidential election

The term of President Pranab Mukherjee ends on 25 July and the Opposition is trying to outwit the BJP by nominating a consensus candidate who can take on the ruling party's choice for the president. The ruling dispensation is short of the majority by 2.5% which has made the opposition hopeful of derailing saffron party's plans on getting its choice become the 14th President of India.

While the opposition has 52.5% of the total votes of the Electoral College, the ruling NDA has 47.5% of the 10.99 lakh votes. What must further worry the NDA is the 2.5% votes of the Shiv Sena since the Mumbai based party has not voted for the NDA candidate in the past two presidential elections. 

Considering the turbulent relationship that Sena and BJP share at present, the possibility of former yet again betraying the latter is not being ruled out. In such a scenario, opposition parties coming together can deal a major blow to the BJP government.

Finding the right crowd

It is for this reason that Congress president has been holding meetings with leaders of like-minded parties who have agreed to come together for choosing a consensus candidate. In these circumstances, Biju Janta Dal's support remains crucial for the opposition to get its nominee elected as President. However, reports suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen on nominating Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu as NDA's presidential nominee.

If that happens, BJD is unlikely to oppose her candidature since she belongs to Odisha and would be the first from the state to occupy the Rashtrapati Bhavan. This could derail opposition's plans of getting its nominee elected to win the presidential race.

Meanwhile, Congress is open to supporting a second term for Pranab Mukherjee who has maintained that he will only contest if NDA also endorses his name. However, if the opposition does come together in choosing a consensus candidate, it could set the platform for 2019 Lok Sabha elections which could see a similar bonhomie to take on BJP.