June 25, 2007
Shekhawat Files Nomination,
Sena Backs Pratibha
New Delhi
Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat Monday filed his nomination
papers for the presidential election as an independent candidate
supported by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), even as one of
its key constituents decided to back Pratibha Patil, the nominee of
India's ruling coalition.
The octogenarian leader filed two sets of nomination papers for the
July 19 poll as senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, accompanied
him to the Lok Sabha secretary general's office.
Despite realizing that the numbers are heavily stacked against him
with the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and Left parties
supporting Pratibha Patil and the United National Progressive
Alliance (UNPA), or the Third Front, refusing to disclose who it was
backing, Shekhawat sounded confident.
"I am confident of winning the presidential elections. I believe the
numbers in this elections are in my favour," said the 84-year-old
Shekhawat who is a former chief minister of Rajasthan.
Leaders of both the Shiv Sena and Trinamool Congress, key allies in
the NDA, were noticeably absent on the occasion.
This was not surprising as late Monday the Shiv Sena declared its
support for Patil.
"This is going to be a moment of pride for Maharashtra that a
Maharashtrian will be occupying the top post in the country for the
first time," Sena chief Bal Thackeray said in a statement issued in
Mumbai.
He also criticized Shekhawat for indicating his readiness to
withdraw from the race if President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam were to
contest.
Since June 18, when UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi announced Patil's
name as its candidate, the Sena had avoided committing itself to
supporting Shekhawat.
Thackeray, however, said the decision to support Patil would not
affect the Sena's ties with the BJP in Maharashtra.
As for the Trinamool Congress, its Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Trivedi,
who had earlier committed to accompany Shekhawat, surprisingly
absented himself at the last minute.
The absence of these two vital allies was made up at least partially
by the presence of former Congress leader and external affairs
minister Natwar Singh and Bhim Singh of the Panthers' Party of Jammu
and Kashmir, who recently walked out of the state's ruling
Congress-Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) combine.
The former foreign minister, who also hails from Rajasthan, even
signed Shekhawat's nomination papers. The chief ministers of most of
the BJP-ruled states were also present on the occasion.
All eyes will now be on whom the UNPA decides to back or if it
decides to abstain from voting after it failed to persuade Kalam to
run for a second term.
Kalam had made his stand clear last Friday.
While some UNPA constituents like the AIADMK and the Asom Gana
Parishad (AGP) still favour putting up their own candidate, other
allies are learnt to have decided to abstain from the presidential
elections.
Boloji.com is owned and managed by Boloji Media Inc Privacy Policy |
Disclaimer
No part of this Internet site may
be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
