The government has formally begun its outreach with the opposition on the presidential election. Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury today. So is there a consensus on a candidate? Well, the Congress says that since the government came for discussions but placed no name of its nominee, there's no question of consensus. But does the Modi government even need the Congress or the Left in order to get its candidate elected as the successor to President Pranab Mukherjee?