HYDERABAD, 13 May, 2002 — Andhra Pradesh’s ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), an ally of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, wants Vice President Krishan Kant to be elevated as the country’s president.
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu also wants to see Andhra Pradesh Governor and eminent economist C. Rangarajan as the new vice president, TDP sources said.
Naidu is believed to have conveyed his choice to Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani in New Delhi last week.
Naidu, who played a key role in making Kant the vice president, is keen to see him as the president, the country’s top post. The five-year tenure of President K.R. Narayanan ends in July.
In 1997 Naidu, as convener of the then United Front, was instrumental in fielding Kant. He agreed to support the Congress party’s choice of Narayanan for president in return for the latter’s support for Kant as vice president.
Naidu’s liking for Kant dates back to the latter’s stint as the governor of Andhra Pradesh when he played a vital role in Naidu becoming the chief minister in 1995 after a revolt against TDP founder and Naidu’s father-in-law N.T. Rama Rao. Kant’s role in inviting Naidu to form a government came under criticism.
Naidu’s choice of Rangarajan as the vice president is also not without reasons. It was Naidu who had used his influence in New Delhi to get Rangarajan named as governor of the state after Kant became the vice president.
Political observers, however, feel it would not be easy for Naidu to have his say over the choice of a president and vice president in the wake of his strained relations with Vajpayee’s Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.Krishan Kant as president
