The Hindu : Front Page : NDA to back Kalam if he contests

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 22, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

NDA to back Kalam if he contests

Neena Vyas & Gargi Parsai

But no UNPA assurance on support to Shekhawat

UNPA leaders to call on Kalam today
NDA, Third Front have got together: Jaswant

NEW DELHI: After three-and-half hours of confabulations between the National Democratic Alliance and the United Nationalist Progressive Alliance here on Thursday, the common strategy that emerged was that the NDA would support A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for a second term as President if he were to contest.

However, the UNPA failed to give any assurance to the NDA on supporting the candidature of Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in the event of Mr. Kalam not contesting. To a question, Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu said: “We are hopeful some good will come out of our efforts [in favour of Kalam], so the question [of supporting Shekhawat] does not arise … our mission is only Kalam.”

The UNPA leaders expressed the hope that AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa would join them on Friday, when they plan to call on Mr. Kalam to discuss with him the issue of “certainty” in the outcome of the poll he raised. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh made it clear to reporters that the discussions in the evening — first it was a meeting of NDA leaders sans the Shiv Sena, and then it was a session of the UNPA and the NDA at the residence of the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee — centred around a strategy to make Mr. Kalam a winnable candidate for ensuring a big defeat to the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance.

It was clarified that after Mr. Shekhawat himself said he would be happy to see Mr. Kalam get a second term, the question of discussing Mr. Shekhawat’s candidature or getting the UNPA support for him did not arise – that would happen later if Mr. Kalam were to bow out of contest. Senior BJP leaders privately said they would certainly raise the issue of the UNPA supporting Mr. Shekhawat if Mr. Kalam were to say “no” to a contest.

However, it is learnt that the UNPA leaders — the former Chief Ministers Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, Om Prakash Chautala of Haryana and Mulayam Singh of Uttar Pradesh (the AIADMK sent M. Thambi Durai as its representative) — told the NDA that so far their efforts to get support from any party outside the UNPA fold met with no success.

The TDP and Samajwadi Party leaders denied that they were about to jump on the bandwagon of the “communal” BJP. “If the Shiv Sena can support the same candidate as the Left, what is the communalism involved here? We are talking to all parties.”

Mr. Jaswant Singh emphasised that “for the first time” the NDA and the Third Front leaders got together and “this has given a right direction to politics” and “this should be taken forward.” The larger meaning was obvious: a new anti-Congress formation was taking birth.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page