Parties may seal Seshan's fate

George Iype in New Delhi

The next president and the vice-president of India are likely to be elected unopposed, given the consensus that is emerging among the ruling and opposition parties on the major contenders.

That is, in fact, bad news for former chief election commissioner T N Seshan, who has declared his candidature for the country's top post, which falls vacant when the present incumbent S D Sharma retires in July.

Despite Seshan's frequent visits to umpteen political leaders to convey them his presidential ambition, there is almost near unanimity among the United Front, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party that "Seshan is not the right President material".

Seshan has already met Congress leaders like Sitaram Kesri, Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot, BJP top brass like L K Advani, A B Vajpayee and Murli Manohar Joshi and UF leaders like P Chidambaram, Jyoti Basu and Harkishen Singh Surjeet seeking their support for his candidature.

While most of the UF and Congress leaders feel that Vice-President K R Narayanan is the most acceptable because of his impressive credentials as a backward class leader, the BJP leadership is also veering around to supporting him with a pre-condition: that the BJP should have a say in the election of the vice-president.

According to BJP vice-president and ideologue K R Malkani, the party "will seriously consider supporting Narayanan's name if the UF and the Congress agree to back the BJP's choice for the next vice-president."

Disclosing that the BJP leadership has not yet "discussed Seshan's request", Malkani told Rediff On The Net that the party is yet to finalise its official candidates for the posts of president and vice-president.

"We prefer consensus on such issues, provided other parties agree to our proposals also," he said. Some BJP leaders have even floated the name of Karan Singh, son of former Kashmir maharaja Hari Singh, for the post.

Unlike the Congress, which is not inimical to Singh's name, the UF partners would not probably agree with the BJP's proposal.

The BJP's gameplan, sources said, is to thwart Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Najma Heptullah's chances of becoming the vice-president. However, UF sources said they prefer Heptullah on the ground that she will be the first woman vice-president in the country.

However, the Congress and the UF, troubled with their own internal problems, have not yet been able to discuss the presidential poll in detail. While the UF is battling the storm created by the fodder scam involving the Bihar chief minister, the Congress leaders are busy preparing for the organisational polls scheduled in June.