Anil Anand
Should the selection of candidates for President and Vice-President elections be held on the basis of electoral calculus?
Ideally speaking it should not be so, simply because such a yardstick will leave the people of eminence, other than the political field, with no chance to serve on the two highest and coveted offices of India. Why deny the nation a chance to be benefitted by their vision and independent view of the issues, constitutional or otherwise?
Again, idealistically speaking future electoral calculations should not play any role in political parties selecting their nominees for the two top constitutional posts which are supposed to be free from all political encumbrances in the constitutional scheme of things. In some manner there has been a strong past precedent wherein though political persons of eminence were fielded by the ruling and opposition parties who had no strong bearing on region, caste or religion factors from elections point of view. Barring a few cases mostly even the candidates with political background had a pre-eminence in other fields such as education, science and technology and judicial fields.
The Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections-2022, are being held under different circumstances and under a regime that does not necessarily go by precedents and conventions and even the laid rules. Instead, they believe in setting precedents not necessarily based on old conventions and covenants. Primarily political-electoral victories, at all levels, seems to be the order of the day. Even the joint opposition had to think in terms of future electoral politics though in a manner different than the ruling BJP and its allies in the selection of their candidates.
Moreso, being held in the run up to 2024 Lok Sabha elections and polls to crucial (from the BJP’s point of view) state assemblies such as Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and later Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan with politically fragile Maharashtra also in sight, it was hard to fathom that the poll-hardened ruling dispensation will have a selection-criteria other than the electoral calculations.
The BJP’s calculation in selecting woman-tribal leader from Odisha, among the few states where the party has not been able to come to power, Draupadi Murmu as its Presidential candidate, and Jagdeep Dhankar, a Jat leader from Congress ruled Rajasthan and sitting Governor of West Bengal as the nominee for the Vice-President’s post, are purely based with an eye on coming electoral battles more than anything else. At another levels it is strongly aimed at Odisha where success has evaded BJP in assembly elections and Rajasthan where it is desperately trying to stage a comeback.
Hence riding piggyback on Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections enroute to future electoral goals.
Scheduled Tribes, and Jats though BJP’s traditional supporters but angered by the three controversial farm Bills and related issues, are the two segments that the party’s poll strategists have been eying. And what better chance than the selection of candidates for the two highest posts in the country to try a new formula?
Apart from appealing to the Tribal population about the BJP’s commitment towards their welfare and empowerment, the selection of Mrs Murmu was also done with an aim to torpedo opposition unity. And the move in this regard did show quick results with Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Mr Naveen Patnaik who was more of a fence sitter immediately announced his support to her candidate. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren though running the Government in coalition with Congress had no option but to back the fellow Tribal leader as the state is a Tribal dominated one.
If the BJP managers played the Murmu card with an eye on Tribal votes, selection of Mr Dhankar has been solely guided to send a strong message to the party’s traditional supporters the strong sections upper-caste Hindus, including the Jats, who have been angry over the BJP’s tilt towards the backward classes during the past few years. Apart from this he has been projected, since the time his name was announced, as ‘kisan putra’ (son of a farmer) to send a strong message of reconciliation to the peasantry particularly the Jats. Apart from this Mr Dhankar’s eventful term as Governor of West Bengal wherein he had repeated clashes with chief minister, Ms Mamta Banerjee, seen as alleged furtherance of the BJP’s agenda, proved the icing on the cake. Certainly, a message to the party-persons on how and what line to toe to endear themselves to the top leadership.
So, the Murmu-Dhankar formula represents the caste balancing formula of the BJP squarely from electoral point of view. This is despite the fact that both of them have a public and professional standing in their respective fields.
The opposition front’s track record under the prevailing circumstances was a trifle better. The selection of veteran politician and old warhorse Yashwant Sinha to be their Presidential candidate was definitely based on his long experience in public record, track-record and above all the stature. At least in agreeing to his name the opposition led by the Congress transcended the trajectory of religion and caste calculations.
However, it would be naïve to say that selection of either Mr Sinha’s or that of veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister- Governor, Mrs Margret Alva’s name for the Vice-President’s post were not guided by any electoral math. Definitely, this process was not as microscopic as in the case of BJP, but done with a broader aim of creating a counter argument to the ruling dispensation’s discourse during the last eight years.
The opposition ostensibly settled for Mr Sinha’s name with a broader aim of starting a debate on the issues relating to Constitutional propriety and policies on which they have not been able to pin-down the ruling dispensation despite their many acts of omission and commission. Given Mr Sinha’s stature and experience in the Constitutional and governance related matters, it was perhaps thought that his word during the course of campaign would matter in at least creating a public debate if not winning the election. And hence an electoral goal.
On the other-hand the selection of Mrs Alva as the Vice-Presidential candidate has a different texture of electoral management but again with a broader aim of creating counter to BJP’s politics of majoritarianism. A woman and a Christian from down South, and of course her long experience in the public and political life seems to have clinched the issue for her.
It was generally expected that the opposition will field a Muslim candidate for Vice President but perhaps under the prevailing circumstances either they could not find a suitable candidate or muster support to field one from the community. The safest course, as they must have thought, would be to select someone from other minority communities and that to a woman as a counter to BJP fielding Mrs Murmu for the top post.
The underlying thinking must have been to send a strong message to the minority communities who though discomforted by BJP’s political agenda, are equally at ease with the opposition for ignoring them in the currently polarised environment.
Definitely, the elections to the post of President and Vice-President are done on non-political basis though selection of candidates is done by the political parties with no bar on independent candidates entering the fray. However, despite selecting the candidates the parties neither issue a whip nor bar their candidates to vote for a particular candidate.
Interestingly, the argument of “conscious vote” comes into play in every election held for the two top constitutional posts with both the ruling and the opposition parties using it for a limited purpose of poaching into each other’s camps.
To make this argument viable should not the selection of candidates be detached form the electoral math calculations of the political parties?
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