Vice-President B S Shekhawat on Monday filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate backed by the NDA for the Presidential election.
The Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee was seen fighting for a lost cause, appealing to both the NDA and the UPA to reelect incumbent A P J Abdul Kalam as a consensus candidate.
The candidate himself presented a confident front, saying, “I am fighting to win. I will say that everybody gives me support. The numbers are in my favour.”
He claimed, “The arithmetic till now shows that I will win.”
Asked if he was confident of getting UNPA votes, he said, “I will not say that I am confident. I can say that they will think about this matter very seriously.”
While senior NDA leaders like chairman A B Vajpayee, convenor George Fernandes, BJP leaders L K Advani and Rajnath Singh, JD(U)’s Sharad Yadav, Akali Dal’s Parkash Singh Badal and BJD’s Naveen Patnaik were present when Mr Shekhawat filed his nomination, it was suspended Congress leader K Natwar Singh who got a fair share of attention by signing the papers as a proposer. Also among the proposers was the National Panthers Party led by Bhim Singh, which had only recently severed its links with UPA.
Even though BJP leader Sushma Swaraj later compared Mr Shekhawat’s contest against UPA’s Pratibha Patil with that of V V Giri’s against Congress’ official candidate Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy in 1969, and expressed confidence that the Vice-President would emerge victorious, the odds are against him.
Referring to the presence of Natwar Singh as a proposer, Ms Swaraj said, “It is not a token appearance. It will send a strong message.” The Congress, however, ignored it, with party leader Devendra Dwivedi saying that as a member of the electoral college, he could sign anyone’s nomination papers since there was no whip involved.
Mr Singh, after signing the papers, said, “Mr Shekhawat has been a very good Vice-President and he can be an outstanding President.”

Sena behind Patil
New Delhi, pti:  The NDA on Monday suffered a setback when Shiv Sena, the oldest ideological ally of the BJP, broke ranks by coming out in support of UPA-Left presidential nominee Pratibha Patil giving a jolt to Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat contesting as an independent.
“It is Maharashtra’s fortune that a Marathi woman is for the first time becoming the president. Those opposing it should be termed wretched,” Thackeray, whose party has a vote value of 22,950 in an electoral college of 10.98 lakh, told reporters in Mumbai. Thackeray also attacked the BJP accusing it of “bargaining” for Shekhawat by making him contest as an independent and “mud-slinging” at Patil over the cooperative bank issue.