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Presidential election : Left for a politician in Rashtrapati Bhavan, Somnath Chatterjee in the reck

	May 07, 2007

The May 11 results of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly will have a major impact on who occupies Rashtrapati Bhavan after the expiry of the term of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on July 24.



The Left parties, whose crucial support keeps the Manmohan Singh Government in power at the Centre, have virtually made it clear that they are not in favour of a second term in office for Kalam. Speaking in New Delhi on April 29, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat took a crack at the BJP which had put up President Kalam in 2002 as the then ruling NDA’s presidential candidate



“As far as a second term is concerned, I recall that last time the BJP had argued that no person should be given a second term and that is why they would not support K.R. Narayanan,” the CPI(M) chief said.



The BJP denied that it had opposed a second term for Dr. Kalam’s predecessor Narayanan. BJP spokesman V.K. Malhotra said the party had never said that it did not want a second term for an incumbent President.



The BJP thus indicated that it was not opposed to the idea of a second term for President Kalam.



The Congress, like BJP, Left and other parties, would also wait for the UP results before firming up strategies.



Aware of its limitations in terms of numbers, the Congress has to depend on a “consensus” to be evolved among its UPA allies and supporting Left partners to enable their presidential candidate through, although the Congress would like to put up an in-house candidate to replace Dr. Kalam, whom it was forced to support last time.



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Left in favour of Somnath Chatterjee



Left parties last week gave broad hints that they would prefer to have Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee as the next President to avert the possibility of the BJP installing its own nominee in Rashtrapati Bhavan. They indicated that they would field Chatterjee as the consensus candidate of the Left, the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and other regional parties.



The Left will be happy if Somnath Chatterjee is the consensus candidate,” CPI leaders A.B. Bardhan and Shamim Faizi said, adding that “the Left has to work in collaboration with the Congress-led UPA coalition after the UP polls are over.”



In an interview, Bardhan and Faizi recalled that the Samajwadi Party had already committed its support to Chatterjee’s candidature for the country’s highest constitutional office.



On Thursday, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said he would be “greatly honoured” if the offer comes his way. Cornered by the media outside the Parliament building, Chatterjee said, “If such an offer comes to any Indian, he or she should be very proud of it. Anyone in the country who is offered the opportunity to serve as the first servant of the nation will regard it as the greatest honour.”



In a move that could end the presidential ambition of middle-class role models like Amartya Sen, Sam Pitroda and M S Swaminathan, a senior Left leader said on Friday, May 4, that the Left would oppose non-political persons making it to Rashtrapati Bhavan.



Though non-committal about the claims of Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, the Left leader ruled out West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi. “He is too junior with non-political background,” he said.



According to the senior Left leader, the UPA-Left consensus candidate would be known between May 11 and 18. Preliminary discussions could begin in Chennai on May 11 when Left-UPA leaders participate in a function to commemorate 50 years of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s stint as legislator. “On May 11, we could fix another date for meeting,” the Left leader said.



Exuding confidence about UPA having an edge over NDA, the Left leader said even in the worst-case scenario of SP not supporting the UPA candidate, chances are BSP would move over to the UPA side. Of course, the BSP move would depend on how far Congress support helps it in forming the government in UP.



In a surprise move, RJD MP Vijay Krishna on Friday, May 4, called upon the CPI(M) to nominate Jyoti Basu as the UPA candidate for the post of President. He said that the coming presidential poll presents the CPI(M) with a great opportunity to correct its “historical blunder” when it did not let the Marxist veteran become the PM in 1996. The RJD MP said that Basu had the right credentials to be an effective President in the “era of coalitions”.







Samajwadi Party would not support any Congress candidate



Reflecting the worsening relations between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, SP general secretary Amar Singh said on May 5 that his party would not support any Congress candidate for the President’s post. Speaking in New Delhi, he was non-committal on whether the Samajwadi Party would support a second term for President Kalam. Amar Singh said the Congress would have to climb down over selecting a candidate for the President’s post. He said if the Left puts up a nominee, his party would be prepared to pitch in with its support. But he ruled out the Samajwadi Party going along with the Left in backing a Congress nominee.





Manmohan Singh first PM to seek re-election to Rajya Sabha



Dr. Manmohan Singh, who is arriving in Guwahati tomorrow on a two-day visit, is expected to become the first Prime Minister to seek re-election to the Rajya Sabha later this month.



The biennial election to the Assam seat represented by Singh will be held on May 24, the Election Commission has announced. Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Singh, whose term in the Upper House comes to an end on June 14, would seek another term in the Rajya Sabha. “He will get re-elected for another term,” one of the sources said, pointing out that the ruling Congress has sufficient votes in Assam.



Although there is no constitutional bar on a Prime Minister seeking re-election to the Rajya Sabha while in office, this is the first time someone will be doing so.



Besides Singh, two other Prime Ministers - H.D. Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral - had used the Rajya Sabha route. Gowda got elected to the Upper House after becoming Prime Minister. Gujral was already a Rajya Sabha member when the mantle fell on him. Since neither could complete the term, the need for re-election did not arise.