NEW DELHI, 15 June 2007 — India’s ruling Congress party yesterday chose a woman as its candidate in a presidential vote next month, raising the prospect that the country could see its first woman head of state.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi announced at a press conference that the governor of the state of Rajasthan, Pratibha Patil, had been chosen as its candidate to succeed President Abdul Kalam.

“It’s a historic moment,” said Sonia, the Italian-born widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The post of president holds limited authority over day-to-day affairs, but can play a crucial role in government formation at state and federal levels, making the selection a battleground, as it has been this year.

The post is chosen by an electoral college of state and federal legislators. They are due to vote on July 19 and the counting of votes is scheduled for July 21, chief election commissioner N. Gopalaswami said on Wednesday.

The electoral college of India’s 29 state assemblies and federal Parliament elects the president for a five-year term through a secret ballot.

With support from the left and from the new woman chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, Pratibha, who is in her early seventies, has a good shot at becoming India’s first woman president, a political expert said.

“It’s almost certain,” said analyst Mahesh Rangarajan, saying that the Congress, the left and Uttar Pradesh’s ruling low-caste Bahujan Samaj Party could put together about 52 percent of the electoral college vote.

Meanwhile, India’s 83-year-old vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was preparing to throw his hat into the electoral ring with support from the BJP.

The country has already had a woman prime minister, with Indira Gandhi, the daughter of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, ruling India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984, coming to be known as India’s “iron lady.”

Hectic discussions for a consensus United Progressive Alliance-left presidential nominee took place earlier in the day.

Another front — All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Samajwadi Party and Telegu Desam Party — may also field its own candidate for the post. They may nominate former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah for the top post. According to the front’s website: “A Kashmiri as the next president will strengthen India’s image worldwide. In peace process with Pakistan, India will gain tremendous advantage.”

If elected, Pratibha, the 72-year-old soft-spoken Congress leader from Maharashtra will be the nation’s 12th president. All the previous occupants of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace, have been men, including incumbent Kalam, who steps down next month after his five-year tenure.

Sonia said the decision was arrived at “through the process of consultations” involving the multi-party UPA, the Left and Bahujan Samaj Party.

Yesterday was a day of political activity in the national capital, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi playing the critical mediator’s role after flying in from Chennai late Wednesday to bridge what at one seemed were irreconcilable differences between the Congress and the left.

It was the veteran DMK leader who indicated in the evening that there was consensus on “a woman candidate.” In no time, Congress sources made it known that the person was Pratibha Patil, a politician-cum-social activist from Jalgaon in Maharashtra who has held a variety of posts both in the state and elsewhere since taking up politics way back in 1962.

She was six times Cabinet minister in Maharashtra, has been member of both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, and in 2004 was named the Rajasthan governor, a post she holds now.

Pratibha Patil, a Rajput, is married to a Maratha, Devisingh Ranisingh Shekhawat.