It seems Shivraj Patil will soon be the candidate of UPA for Presidential Election. Mayawati will support UPA candidate. Left Front is likely to go along after expressing its reservations. Bal Thackeray has declared that Shiv Sena will support Shivraj Patil because he is a Marathi Manoos. Jayalalitha has declared that Third Front will not support Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Shivraj Patil’s chances of becoming the President of India are 75%.
Pranab Mukherjee was a leading contender. Left Front was in favour of him overlooking the claim of its own Somnath Chatterjee. However Congress President was not sure of Pranab Mukherjee’s loyalty to her. So his candidature suffered and an excuse was given that he was indispensable to run the government. Now he has the task of building consensus in favour of Shivraj Patil which is rubbing salt in his wounds.
Names of many other Congress leaders made the rounds. Arjun Singh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Veerappa Moily, Motilal Vora, Narayan Dutt Tiwari and Karan Singh were some of them. None could succeed.
Shivraj Patil can be counted on to favour Congress in general and Sonia Gandhi and her family in particular. His record as Speaker of the Lok Sabha speaks volumes about his partiality. He will disregard norms and conventions to favour Congress. His record as Home Minister of India was pathetic. Naxals became strong.
Congress has some good candidates like Kapil Sibal, P. Chidambaram, A. K. Antony etc. I do not agree with some of the policies of P. Chidambaram but he is good to be President. Kapil Sibal and A. K. Antony have proved themselves. I expect these three to be impartial.
Let a good person from Congress be its candidate.
