June 14, 2007
India Appears Set
To Get First Woman President
New Delhi
India's ruling coalition announced Thursday it was giving the
country its first woman president by declaring the candidature of
Pratibha Patil, the Rajasthan governor but not a high profile
politician, after an adamant Left refused to back Home Minister
Shivraj Patil's candidature.
The United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) named Patil, 72, as its surprise presidential nominee
Thursday evening after more than a month's uncertainty and media
speculation.
Pratibha Patil's name had never publicly figured in the intense
political parleys over the UPA's presidential candidate - and the
choice took the nation by surprise.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who had been at the centre of the
political discussions, made the formal announcement saying it was a
"historic moment" for India.
If elected, the 72-year-old soft-spoken Congress leader from
Maharashtra will be the nation's 12th president. All the previous
occupants of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace, have been
men, including incumbent A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who steps down next
month after an eventful five-year tenure.
"It is a matter of great pride for the nation that on the historic
moment of the 60th anniversary of our independence, we will have a
woman president," Gandhi told UPA leaders at 7 Race Course Road, the
official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Gandhi said the decision was arrived at "through the process of
consultations" involving the multi-party UPA, the Left and Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP), which together command an overwhelming majority
in the electoral college that elects the president.
Thursday was a day of hectic political activity in the national
capital, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi playing the
critical mediator's role after flying in from Chennai late Wednesday
to bridge what at one seemed were irreconcilable differences between
the Congress and the Left.
It was the veteran DMK leader who indicated in the evening that
there was consensus on "a woman candidate". In no time, Congress
sources made it known that the person was Pratibha Patil, a
politician-cum-social activist from Jalgaon in Maharashtra who has
held a variety of posts both in the state and elsewhere since taking
to politics way back in 1962.
She was six times cabinet minister in Maharashtra, has been member
of both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, and in 2004 was named the
Rajasthan governor, a post she holds now.
It was clear that Pratibha Patil's choice was also related to the
fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic
Alliance (NDA) was going to prop up Vice President Bhairon Singh
Shekhawat, a veteran politician who has served as chief minister of
Rajasthan, for the presidential elections due July 19.
Pratibha Patil, a Rajput, is married to a Maratha, Devisingh
Ranisingh Shekhawat.
Once an advocate in Jalgaon, Pratibha Patil is a post-graduate in
arts and law, having studied both in the small town and in Mumbai.
She was first elected to the Maharashtra assembly in 1962. She
remained a member of the house until 1988.
From 1967 to 1972, she was a deputy minister in the Maharashtra
government, and then from 1972 to 1978 was a cabinet minister in the
state holding several portfolios. She was the opposition leader in
the Maharashtra assembly in 1979-80.
For two years from 1986, Pratibha Patil was deputy chairman of the
Rajya Sabha. Widely travelled, she was last elected to the Lok Sabha
in 1991, in the general election marred by the assassination of
Rajiv Gandhi.
Besides having been president of the Maharashtra Congress chapter,
she is credited with establishing hostels for "working women" in
Mumbai and New Delhi, an engineering college at Jalgaon for rural
youth, a women's cooperative bank also at Jalgaon, and schools for
poor children in Maharashtra.
Pratibha Patil's choice as UPA's presidential candidate took the
nation by surprise considering the high profile nature of Shivraj
Patil, who lost the race only because of the resistance put up by
the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and its allies.
Although the Left never said publicly that it was opposed to Shivraj
Patil, communist sources let it be known that they doubted the
secular credentials of the minister who is known to be a devotee of
Sathya Sai Baba, a leading godman based in Puttaparthi town in
Andhra Pradesh.
Once it was evident that Shivraj Patil would not be able to make it
to the presidential palace, the names of Power Minister SushilKumar
Shinde and Congress veteran Karan Singh were brandied about. But
pro-Left sources hinted that they disapproved of even Karan Singh,
the scion of Kashmir's royal family.
The Left remained adamant on blocking names it did not like even
after Karunanidhi announced that he would go with anyone the
Congress chose as its presidential nominee.
Early Thursday, Karunanidhi held discussions with Left leaders and
then met Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi. He again got in touch with
the Left, leading to a joint meeting of the Left and UPA where
Pratibha Patil's name was picked.
Amid the UPA confusion, the BJP-led NDA was preparing to put up a
strong fight, by probably fielding Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
Shekhawat is known to have wide connections among India's political
class and could be counted to draw votes even from sections of the
UPA, making him a formidable contestant.
"This is the reason we have to ensure the Left support," one
Congress leader told IANS.
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