News Analysis
The election for President Ramnath Kovind’s successor is more than two months away. While the government is comfortably placed to pick the candidate of their choice, the election will find the Opposition, which is keen to force an ideological contest, in a difficult position exposing its fault lines and challenging Congress’s position as the lead Opposition party.
So far, no formal conversations have started except for loud musings within a section of Congress. “It is a fact that the Opposition does not have numbers. But this is not simple arithmetic, it is a battle of ideology so we will put up a candidate. And anyway, the only closely fought Presidential election was in 1969 and yet number or no numbers they have been contested,” a senior Congress leader said.
