Five family members of president-elect Ms Pratibha Patil will move into Rashtrapati Bhavan along with her, after she takes oath on Wednesday. But none of them, including husband Mr Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat, is likely to stay in the presidential palace throughout her five-year tenure.

Family accompanying Ms Patil will include son, Mr Raosaheb and daughter, Ms Jyoti Sisodia, and their spouses, besides Ms Patil’s husband, a family source told IANS.

Mr Shekhawat told journalists on Saturday, that the day Ms Patil was elected president, she became the “head of the family.” “I am just an ordinary person,” he had added.

The ex-principal of a college run by Ms Patil’s Vidya Bharati Shikshan Sanstha, Mr Shekhawat was only an occasional guest, even at her official residence in Jaipur, when she was governor of Rajasthan until recently.
“While six entry passes have been issued to Ms Pratibha Patil’s family for Rashtrapati Bhavan, as many as 70 passes have been issued in the name of other relatives and close friends to attend the ceremony,” the source said.