And Finally It Is Pranab For President Of India!

The United Progressive Alliance-2 (UPA-2), the ruling coalition of India, finally delivered a political masterstroke by nominating Pranab Mukherjee, the present Finance Minister and a seasoned Congress leader, for the post of President of India today evening in New Delhi. All the twists and turns, all the politics of unholy alliances have been put to rest now. Well, hopefully… since even the most opposed political party would find it very difficult to reject Pranab Mukherjee. The citizens of India can have a sigh of relief now at the prospect of having a consensus candidate and a most worthy one for the top post.

Several political parties within and out of the UPA-2 have already extended support for Pranab. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the opposition combine of the country, too might very well go in for a consensus as they failed to find or convince a suitable candidate who could offer a strong contest. The NDA's decision is expected in a day or two. The Left parties too hardly have a choice to differ, though they have decided to announce their support or opposition after formal consultations.

And, Mamata Banerji’s convenient ally Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party had already declared support for Pranab. Mulayam justified the party decision by saying that the three names decided with Mamata were only suggestions and not at all binding. His decision is significant for other opposition parties, because his roared back to power in Uttar Pradesh on a huge anti-Congress wave. So now, Mamata became the only person opposed to Pranab and she and her party have been marginalized clinically. Even then, after being nominated for the top post the magnanimous Pranab Mukherjee, expressing his gratitude for the great honor, referred to Mamata as his ‘little sister’ and hoped to get her support eventually.

His name had  been discussed all the while for nearly two months, he had become the frontrunner in the Presidential race and almost attained the status of a consensus candidate  giving rise to the question as to why he was not nominated by the UPA-2 in the beginning itself. Maybe democratically that was not appropriate or maybe the state of political uncertainty delayed the inevitable. As a result murky and manipulative politics came to the fore, but finally it was worthiness and honor that prevailed. PA Sangma is still determined to contest, but his fate has been more or less sealed.

In Pranab Mukherjee we can have a President who can guide the Government in times of stress and make effective contribution to the governance of the country. In the entire history of independent India we have only one or two Presidents who strongly refused to be mere figureheads.