The Hindu : National : Race for Presidency yet to begin

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Monday, Feb 12, 2007
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National

National

Race for Presidency yet to begin

NEW DELHI: About five months are left for President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's term to end but the race for Rashtrapati Bhavan is yet to begin. Political parties are possibly waiting to see the outcome of the Assembly elections, particularly in Uttar Pradesh.

Several names are making the rounds — Congress veterans Karan Singh and Sushil Kumar Shinde, Vice-President and BJP stalwart Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, CPI(M)'s long-standing Parliamentarian.

Mr. Kalam, who expressed lack of interest in a second innings because he wanted to go back to teaching, came into the reckoning after National Democratic Alliance leaders met him and publicly favoured his continuance. But whether Mr. Kalam will change his mind remains a matter of speculation.

Actor Amitabh Bachchan's friends in the Samajwadi Party have begun whispering his name as a potential candidate with the support of the so-called "third front" consisting of the Samajwadi Party, the Telugu Desam Party, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Asom Gana Parishad.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi on Sunday promised a "formal, reasoned and well-thought out decision" on the party's approach to the presidential elections. His party colleague and Union Minister Ambika Soni said the party "would not drag the issue of the highest office into small-time politics" as it always worked for a consensus.

Dalit candidate?

Other sources in the party said that while watching out for the numbers the Congress would have in the electoral college after the Uttar Pradesh and other Assembly elections, there was an internal dilemma as to whether it should nominate a Dalit such as Mr. Shinde or not take recourse to any "card."

Some in the party point out that the country now has a President, a Muslim, and a Prime Minister hailing from another minority community. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is a Dalit. So it would do well to consider someone from the majority community. This argument goes in favour of Dr. Singh, who has been in public life for more than 50 years.

One key element in the Congress strategy will be whether the Left parties would press Mr. Chatterjee's candidature. That may raise the possibility of the Congress offering the Vice-President's post to someone from the Left in return for the Communist support to a Congress candidate for Rashtrapati Bhavan. — PTI

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