NDA should rethink on fielding candidate for Prez polls: Moily

Union Minister Veerapa Moily on Thursday said the opposition NDA should rethink about its decision to field PA Sangma against UPA's candidate Pranab Mukherjee in the Presidential poll.

"The National Democratic Alliance should rethink its decision and not mix up politics with Presidential election," the Corporate Affairs Minister told PTI on the sidelines of a function here, 33 km from Bangalore.

Moily said it was not the time for the NDA to demonstrate its presence as an Opposition. "NDA thinks it is not going to win and it is fielding a candidate to demonstrate its presence," he added.

By putting up a candidate, Moily said, he did not think the NDA is scoring a point as a political alliance.

The Opposition alliance has to think about the country and it would soon realise the mistake done by it in politicising the issue, he said.

"Presidential election is a national, not party issue and therefore all parties should rethink," the Minister said.

Moily said there is a consensus emerging on the candidature of UPA's nominee Pranab Mukherjee. "It is our national duty to ensure that he is elected," he said.

He claimed Mukherjee would definitely secure more than 70 per cent votes to win the Presidential poll.

Asked whether the Congress has identified a suitable replacement for Mukherjee in the event of his becoming the President, Moily said it was left to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take an appropriate decision on the matter.

Earlier speaking to reporters, Moily said the second 'Chikballapur Udyog Mela' would be held at SJC Institute of Technology from July 14 to July 15.

The mela aims at connecting thousands of unemployed rural and semi-urban youth to the opportunities offered by a fast growing economy, Moily, who represents Chikballapur in the Lok Sabha, said.

The Chikballapur Lok Sabha constituency covers parts of Bangalore Urban and Bangalore Rural districts.

"The vision is to make the Chikballapur constituency a model for job creation by creating a platform that connects young job seekers to employers from the private and public sector," Moily said.

Moily said the mela has been planned in such a way that anybody from any state could apply and they would be helped in getting employment, commensurate with their qualifications and experience. "Last year we got aspirants from Maharashtra and other neigbhbouring states," he said.

More than 350 companies including IT firms, airlines companies, and those in banking, finance, BPO, ITeS, sales, marketing, healthcare and hospitality sectors have agreed to participate in the mela, Moily said.

Asked about the success rate of last year's Udyog Mela, Moily said it was difficult to say, but from this year "we have decided to set up a tracking system to track how many participants actually got jobs. For this, we will set up a training centre which will track job-seekers' status."

In continuation of pre-counselling session, eight days certification course for preparing candidates for the Mela already commenced on June 18 for 241 candidates, he said, adding, after completion of the courses they will be awarded certificate with assured employment.