Mukherjee to meet coalition, allies’ leaders
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 6: United Progressive Alliance (UPA) nominee for Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee is visiting Jammu and Kashmir around July 15 for canvassing in his favour though he was sure of majority of 13,344 votes at stake in the election from the State.
Mr Mukherjee is locked in contest with BJP and some other parties backed candidate PA Sangma, former Lok Sabha Speaker, for the post of President, the election for which was scheduled to be held on July 19.
Political sources told the Excelsior that Pranab Mukherjee, who had quit as Finance Minister in the UPA Government to join the fray for Presidential contest, could visit Jammu and Kashmir, around July 15. During his one day visit, he was expected to address and inter-act with MPs and MLAs of National Conference and Congress, the two coalition partners in Chief Minister Omar Abdullah led coalition Government, and their allies.
As the main opposition party in Jammu and Kashmir, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was also likely to support Mr Mukherjee, he could have a separate meeting with the party leaders and MLAs.
While the BJP with four MLAs in the State was supporting Mr Sangma, three members National Panthers Party (NPP) has also declared its support to the opposition candidate. Seven BJP rebel MLAs headed by former Union Minister Prof Chaman Lal Gupta haven’t made up their mind so far on extending support to either Mr Mukherjee or Mr Sangma.
Sources said though Pranab Mukherjee was confident of getting majority of votes from Jammu and Kashmir in view of ruling National Conference being coalition partner of Congress and the main opposition, PDP also most likely to back him, still the UPA nominee has decided to visit the State, meet top political leaders and inter-act with MPs and MLAs, who constituted electoral college for the Presidential election.
Ten Members of Parliament (MPs)—six of Lok Sabha and four Rajya Sabha and 87 elected MLAs in the State comprised electoral college for election of the President having a total vote value of 13,344.
Major political parties including National Conference-Congress coalition partners and their allies accounted for nearly 50 MLAs and 10 MPs with a total vote value of 10,752 out of 13,344.
As all 10 MPs from the State belonged to National Conference and Congress, they accounted for 7080 votes, all of which would go to Mr Mukherjee. About 50 MLAs of the coalition accounted for 3672 votes. The vote value of a MP all over the country including J&K is 708 while the vote value of the MLA in the State was 72.
Though the PDP with 21 MLAs and 1512 votes was yet to make a formal announcement, sources said the party would vote for Mr Mukherjee. The PDP Legislature Party and Political Affairs Committee would take a final decision very soon, party sources said.
“Only elected MLAs in the Assembly (87) were eligible to cast votes for the post of President while two Nominated women MLAs in the Lower House can’t vote. Similarly, the MLCs (members of the Upper House) were also not entitled to vote for the election’’, sources said.
The State has 10 MPs, six of whom were directly elected by the people (members of Lok Sabha) while four others were elected by the MLAs (members of Rajya Sabha). All of them belonged to ruling National Conference-Congress coalition. The NC was a partner in the UPA Government.
Of six elected MPs, three belonged to National Conference including Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Dr Farooq Abdullah (Srinagar-Budgam seat), Sharief-ud-Din Shariq (Baramulla-Kupwara) and Dr Mehboob Beg (Anantnag-Pulwama). Two MPs from Jammu—Madan Lal Sharma (Jammu-Poonch) and Choudhary Lal Singh (Udhampur-Doda) belonged to Congress. Independent MLA from Ladakh Ghulam Hassan Commander was also affiliated to the NC.
Four Rajya Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir were Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad and PCC (I) president Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz (both from Congress), Mohammad Shaffi Uri and GN Ratanpuri (both National Conference).
They added that all 7080 votes of 10 MPs in J&K would go to the UPA nominee, Pranab Mukherjee as all of them belonged to NC and Congress, which were coalition partners in the State. The NC was also part of the UPA Government at the Centre.
Follow our WhatsApp channel