By IANS
New Delhi/Chennai : The battle for India's presidency intensified Monday with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announcing its formal support to Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and an eight-party front urging political parties to give President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam another five-year tenure.
The day's events appeared to tilt the presidential contest in favour of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate and Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Patil, with the Shiv Sena not going along with NDA's decision because of Patil's Maharashtra origins.
And with the so-called Third Front not coming out in favour of Shekhawat, after a marathon meeting of its top leaders in Chennai, his ability to win the July 19 presidential election became that much dimmer.
Even with the combined votes of the Congress, Left and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ranged against him, Shekhawat would have needed the votes of all NDA partners as well as the eight groups of Third Front, which Monday christened itself as the United New Progressive Alliance (UNPA), besides UPA cross-voting to make a mark.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led opposition has 354,689 votes in the electoral college of 1.098 million votes. The UPA-Left-BSP combine is far ahead with 570,000 votes. The Third Front commands 106,281 votes.
But no sooner than Shekhawat formally announced his candidature, the eight-party UNPA declared in Chennai that it wanted President Kalam, India's third Muslim president, to get another term.
Although Kalam has made it clear that he was not ready for a second tenure unless there is consensus amongst all political parties, the grouping pledged to approach him with the request.
"There is no other candidate who has the stature of Kalam," announced AIADMK chief and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalitha after a meeting of the alliance leaders at her residence.
The meeting was also attended by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Indian National Lok Dal leader Om Prakash Chautala and Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu among others.
"We will appeal to all political parties to support Kalam as there is no other leader who is respected by all sections of the society today," Jayalalitha said.
Jayalalitha said the UPA decision to field Patil was a "joke" on the nation played by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and that Patil was nowhere of the same "stature" as Kalam.
"Many people in the country, I am talking about the public perception, are not ready to take Pratibha Patil's candidature as seriously."
Monday's decision by NDA to embrace Shekhawat, who will be an independent, was no surprise. All the heavyweights of BJP, to which he belonged for decades until he quit when he became the vice president, were at the residence of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee along with a confident looking Shekhawat.
Vajpayee read out a brief statement: "It is our view that Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is most suited to occupy the high chair of the president of India."
He described Shekhawat as a leader with a "distinguished record of serving the nation from an ordinary citizen to the vice president of India, in a true patriotic fervour.
"He also discharged his duties as the vice president of India acting beyond party affiliations.
"Therefore, the NDA has decided to extend its support to Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as a non-party independent candidate. That is how it should be."
Greeting the expected decision were NDA convenor George Fernandes, BJP president Rajnath Singh as well as Sushma Swaraj, Jaswant Singh and L.K. Advani, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, Biju Janata Dal's Braj Kishore Tripathy, Akali Dal's S.S. Dhindsa and Dinesh Trivedi of the Trinamool Congress.
Shiv Sena's Manohar Joshi came to the meeting but said that party chief Bal Thackeray would announce his stand on the presidential elections only Tuesday – the day the party was founded.
Although NDA leaders claim they can rely on "cross voting", they privately admit that the numbers are not in their favour.
"If the Shiv Sena decides to back Pratibha Patil citing Maratha pride, we do not have any scope," said an NDA leader.
Meanwhile, Patil was confined to the Jodhpur House here, with a steady stream of visitors calling on her. But she declined to speak to the waiting media.
Those who met her included Arunachal Pradesh Governor S.K. Singh, Maharasthra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Surface Transport Minister T.R. Baalu besides a large women's delegation.
Shekhawat too had a large number of callers at his residence. They included Sushma Swaraj, party colleagues S.S. Ahluwalia and L.M. Singhvi and former head of the Minorities Commission, Tarlochan Singh.
A delegation led by Sayed Abdul Sari Chishti from the Ajmer Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti also met Shekhawat and pledged to campaign among Muslim MPs and MLAs on his behalf. Shekhawat has been a former Rajasthan chief minister.