Left and Congress managers are busy spinning stories about how smoothly and effortlessly they zeroed in on former diplomat Hamid Ansari as their Vice Presidential candidate. Ansari, the Congress says, was, after all, the party’s nominee for several important positions earlier, including chairman of the National Minorities Commission, his latest. The Left says it had just one name on which the Congress readily agreed.

The reality, however, is far from it.

In fact, the Left, more specifically, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, and Congress negotiators were never on the same page — even RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav was roped in by the Congress only to be snubbed by Karat.

When Karat declared that Ansari was his only candidate and the ball was in Congress court, his implied threat was too obvious to miss. A senior Congress leader had to admit on Friday afternoon, hours before the candidate was officially announced: “This is not an issue on which we can let the government fall.”

There were two unstated political considerations the Left had while scouting for a name. The first: the candidate should be a Muslim. After opposing A P J Abdul Kalam for a second term in Rashtrapati Bhawan, the party calculated that sponsoring a Muslim name was necessary given the substantial community votes that sustain it both in Kerala and West Bengal.

The second: the candidate should symbolize a political position on some key issue echoing that of the Left. On Thursday evening, at a meeting of Left partners, two names were shortlisted: Hamid Ansari and Justice Jeevan Reddy.

... contd.