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After Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah, Gopalkrishna Gandhi rejected the offer to be the opposition's presidential candidate.
Digital Desk: Former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi became the third person to reject the opposition parties' offer to run for the Presidential election on Monday.
Sharad Pawar, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, and Farooq Abdullah, the president of the National Conference, had previously declined to be the opposition's joint candidate for the July 18 presidential election.
"Having pondered the topic seriously, I see that the Opposition's nominee should be one who will build a national consensus and a national mood alongside Opposition unity. I believe others will do a far better job than I do. As a result, I've asked the leaders to provide such a person with the opportunity," Gandhi said in a statement released Monday.
"So, I've asked the leaders to give such a person a chance. May India be blessed with a President worthy of the post foreshadowed by Rajaji as the last Governor-General and established by Dr. Rajendra Prasad as our first President," said the former diplomat and Mahatma Gandhi's grandson.
Gandhi's decision comes a day before the opposition's second round of talks, which will take place on June 21, to select a consensus candidate.
Even in 2017, the opposition wanted to run Gandhi for the Presidential election, but the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) choice of Ram Nath Kovind as its face caused a change of mind. Eventually, the Opposition nominated Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker who, like Kovind, is a Dalit.
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