No consensus on first Indian female president
Pallab Bhattacharya, New Delhi
A contest and not a consensus for the post of president of India appears inevitable with main opposition BJP-led NDA having rejected ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA)'s appeal for backing its woman candidate Pratibha Patil.Shortly after choosing Patil as its nominee for the top post, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi spoke to NDA Chairperson Atal Bihari Vajpayee seeking the opposition combine's support for her. Sonia told Vajpayee that this was the first time she is seeking support from him but the senior BJP leader told her that NDA has its own candidate and it was therefore not possible for the opposition alliance to honour her request, a statement issued by BJP late on Thursday night said. Besides, Vajpayee told Gandhi that the UPA did not consult NDA before finalising its presidential nominee and was seeking its support only after deciding on Patil, the statement said. BJP President Rajnath Singh also ruled out a consensus and reiterated that the NDA has its own nominee for the top constitutional post. The opposition was clearly taken by surprise at the nomination of 71-year-old Patil, who has a Masters' degree in law and has served as a minister in Congress governments in western state of Maharashtra in the 1970s and 1980s, BJP sources said. They said the nomination of a woman presidential nominee may have affected the chances of Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, a senior BJP leader, in the presidential contest. Congress, political observers said, is clearly seeking to use the emotive plank of a woman being made the president for the first time. This was evident when senior party leader and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee last night appealed to all political parties to support Pratibha Patil to ensure a woman becomes the head of state for the first time. It may be recalled that the Left parties had fielded a woman Lakshmi Sehgal, an associate of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, as its joint presidential candidate when incumbent APJ Abdul Kalam was put up by NDA and backed by Congress. Sehgal had lost that contest. Patil had been in virtual political wilderness for about eight years since the end of her tenure as Lok Sabha member in 1996 before she was made by Congress-led UPA government Rajasthan Governor.
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