BJP backs Shekhawat for President

Realising that their numbers in five Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states and four where the party is in power with allies do not add to the adequate number to have their own candidate for the presidentship, the party is now looking for a consensus candidate.

"We are still busy with the Uttar Pradesh elections and have not applied our minds to it. BJP chief Rajnath Singhji has called a parliamentary party meeting on May 11 when there could be discussions on this matter," M Venkaiah Naidu, former president of the party, told newsmen at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The party has already sounded President A P J Kalam in case he agrees to go ahead with the second term. But Kalam has not given any signals to the BJP as yet.

This has forced the party top brass to redraw its strategy. Particularly in view of the fact that Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's candidature has the support of the Left parties.

"You remember what happened last time. Till the last minute, we did not know about the nomination of President Kalam. Then consensus emerged round him and the Communist Party-Marxist chose not to support him and put up its own candidate," Venkaiah explained.

Asked if this was the end of the road for the Vice President of India Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. "We have not said that. It is still very much a possibility. Some senior leaders have questioned the manner in which the vice president's name is being mentioned lightly in the party circles itself. Shekhawat is very angry," admitted a senior party leader.

But the numbers game does not favour Shekhawat. The race for the presidency is hotting up with more and more candidates likely to join the fray in the next couple of weeks.