Commentary/Rajiv Shukla

The Presidential race hots up

The Presidential candidature will be finalised by the end of the Budget session and subsequently, the process to elect a vice-president will be initiated.

For all practical purposes, the race for the presidency involves two candidates -- President Shankar Dayal Sharma and Vice President K R Narayanan. Dr Sharma is learnt to be keen on a second term and some former ministers like Motilal Vora, Vinod Sharma and Suresh Pachauri are lobbying hard for him.

The opposite camp comprise a large section of United Front and Congress MPs. This bloc, featuring, among others, Left leaders like Sitaram Yechury and Janata Dal heavyweights including C M Ibrahim, Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad Yadav, finds it thoroughly inagreeable to have Dr Sharma for another term. Paswan, for his part, have long been advocating the need for a dalit President. Thus, for this group, Narayanan is the ideal candidate.

But for a few Janata Dal leaders close to Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Sitaram Kesri is the wild card. The PM's coterie is keen that Kesri become President and the Congress joins the United Front government. But Kesri loyalists Tariq Anwar and Ghulam Nabi Azad insist the Congress chief would rather be the next prime minister.

While both Deve Gowda and Kesri have maintained a discreet silence about the presidentship issue, it is likely to be a straightforward Shankar Dayal Sharma vs K R Narayanan tussle. In case the latter becomes President, the vice-president's election will have to take place immediately.

Here, the field is much more crowded -- more than half-a-dozen contenders are in the fray. At the moment, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Dr Najma Heptullah, former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Patil, Karnataka Governor Khursheed Alam Khan and former Union minister P M Sayeed are among the front-runners. Other names doing the rounds are those of former Lok Sabha speaker Rabi Ray, Lok Speaker Purno A Sangma and National Conference member of Parliament Dr Karan Singh.

Shivraj Patil, confident of roping in Bharatiya Janata Party support for his candidature, believes that he is the consensus man. Heputallah is banking on her experience as the vice-president's deputy in the Rajya Sabha. Plus, the fact that she is a Muslim and, more importantly, a woman. Dr Karan Singh's scholarly profile has several takers. Sangma, too, has a good many followers; but he is not too keen to say good-bye to active politics just yet.

But there is another non-political person in the fray who could well upset all calculations -- Chief Justice A M Ahmadi who is due to retire this month. Deve Gowda's team is wary of either the Presidency or vice-presidentship going to former or present Congressmen. So, several UF leaders have extended support to Justice Ahmadi.

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