Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, June 20: Former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi became the third person to decline the invitation to run for President from the opposition parties on Monday.
Sharad Pawar, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, and Farooq Abdullah, the president of the National Conference, had previously declined to be the Opposition’s joint candidate for the July 18 presidential election.
“Having considered the matter deeply I see that the Opposition’s candidate should be one who will generate a national consensus and a national atmosphere beside Opposition unity,” he said.
“I feel there will be others who will do this far better than I. And so I have requested the leaders to give the opportunity to such a person,” he added.
Notably, Gandhi’s decision comes a day before the Opposition’s second round of talks, which will take place on June 21 in order to select a consensus candidate.
Even in 2017, the Opposition wanted to run Gandhi for President, but the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) choice of Ram Nath Kovind as its face caused a change of heart. Eventually, the Opposition nominated Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker whon is also a Dalit like Ram Nath Kovind.
