Monday, December 11, 2006

Somnath Chatterjee Eyeing President’s Post; BJP the main roadblock

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee is now eyeing the coveted post of the President of India. If there is any roadblock that is likely to scuttle his Presidential ambition, it is the BJP.
Hi Time Express has learnt that the chief motive behind complaint of Speaker’s “highhandedness and partisan” attitude in conducting business by BJP and NDA leaders has become more focused and categorical after the word leaked out that the CPI (M) would like Chatterjee to occupy Rashtrapati Bhawan in May 2007, when President APJ Abdul Kalam retires. The idea of the main Opposition party is to create so much controversy around Chatterjee's personality that he is not taken to be most suitable candidate by the Congress and other UPA allies for the post of Head of the State. The BJP has already backed President Kalam for a second term in office.
The President office is held to be apolitical and non-partisan. The party leadership also feels that Chatterjee himself might back off from contesting the topmost constitutional post if he feels that he does not have support from a cross-section of the political spectrum. In a rare breach of protocol, former PM AB Vajpayee and Leader of Opposition LK Advani have gone on record against conduct of Chatterjee. The NDA decided to boycott daily meetings chaired by the Speaker at his office.
Sources close to the Speaker are fully aware of the BJP's gameplan. "Their campaign against him is calculated to tarnish his image and eliminate him from the Presidential race. The BJP can never digest a communist occupying the Rashtrapati Bhavan," they said, even as the saffron party hinted that it would back the incumbent president APJ Abdul Kalam for a second term.
However, UPA has a different take on the issue. Strongly disapproving of BJP decision to boycott Speaker's meetings, parliamentary affairs minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said the BJP is trying to drive a wedge between the UPA and the Speaker. "They are trying to isolate the Speaker from the UPA, but they will not succeed," he said. Dasmunshi said sometimes Chatterjee had gone "beyond" to give an opportunity to the opposition on many counts. "I feel that the Speaker is most accomodative. Sometimes, he is even acting on his own to accomodate the opposition and other members to allow them to raise issues without consulting the government," he said.
In his bid to puncture BJP argument, an official in the Speaker's office said there were occasions earlier when the House transacted business amidst din. During monsoon session Rajya Sabha chairperson Bhairon Singh Shekawat, who is senior BJP leader, had conducted business when the House was in disorder and there were no protests from the saffron camp, he said.
"They are targeting an individual for reasons they know best. There are 38 parties in the Lok Sabha and if BJP's logic that if there is din no business should be transacted, then a MP or a group of them could sabotage Parliament proceedings," he said adding that the Speaker had allowed as many as seven adjournment motions moved by the Opposition during the last two-and-a-half years as against a total four during the six-year NDA rule.
Other than BJP’s efforts to scuttle the CPI(M)’s plan, things were mostly favourable for Chatterjee in the coalition Government. With the Congress direly needing the support of the Left for continuance in office for another two years or so and several small and regional parties already on its side, it was more or less decided that they would not have come out openly against Chatterjee’s candidature. That is why BJP was left with no choice but to openly attack the Lok Sabha speaker.

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