NEW DELHI/CHENNAI, 19 June 2007 — The battle for India’s presidency intensified yesterday with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announcing its formal support to Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and an eight-party front urging political parties to give President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam another five-year tenure.
The day’s events appeared to tilt the presidential contest in favor of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate and Rajasthan Gov. Pratibha Patil, with the Shiv Sena not going along with NDA’s decision because of Pratibha’s Maharashtra origins.
And with the so-called Third Front not coming out in favor of Shekhawat, after a marathon meeting of its top leaders in Chennai, his ability to win the July 19 presidential election became that much dimmer.
Even with the combined votes of the Congress, left parties and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ranged against him, Shekhawat would have needed the votes of all NDA partners as well as the eight parties of the Third Front, which yesterday christened itself as the United New Progressive Alliance (UNPA), besides UPA cross-voting to make a mark.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led opposition has 354,689 votes in the electoral college of 1.098 million votes. The UPA-left-BSP combine is far ahead with 570,000 votes. The Third Front commands 106,281 votes.
But no sooner had Shekhawat formally announced his candidature, than the eight-party UNPA declared in Chennai that it wanted President Kalam, India’s third Muslim president, to get another term.
Although Kalam has made it clear that he was not ready for a second tenure unless there is consensus among all political parties, the grouping pledged to approach him with the request.
“There is no other candidate who has the stature of Kalam,” announced AIADMK chief and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha after a meeting of the alliance leaders at her residence.
The meeting was also attended by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Indian National Lok Dal leader Om Prakash Chautala and Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, among others.
“We will appeal to all political parties to support Kalam as there is no other leader who is respected by all sections of the society today,” Jayalalitha said.
Jayalalitha said the UPA decision to field Pratibha was a “joke” on the nation played by Congress party President Sonia Gandhi and that Pratibha was nowhere of the same “stature” as Kalam. “Many people in the country, I am talking about the public perception, are not ready to take Pratibha Patil’s candidature as seriously.”
Yesterday’s decision by NDA to embrace Shekhawat, who will be an independent, was no surprise. All the heavyweights of BJP, to which he belonged for decades until he quit when he became the vice president, were at the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee along with a confident looking Shekhawat.
Vajpayee read out a brief statement: “It is our view that Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is most suited to occupy the high chair of the president of India.”
He described Shekhawat as a leader with a “distinguished record of serving the nation from an ordinary citizen to the vice president of India, in a true patriotic fervor. He also discharged his duties as the vice president of India acting beyond party affiliations.”
“Therefore, the NDA has decided to extend its support to Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as a nonparty independent candidate. That is how it should be.” Greeting the expected decision were NDA convenor George Fernandes, BJP President Rajnath Singh as well as Sushma Swaraj, Jaswant Singh and L.K. Advani.
