The suspense over the next Rashtrapati Bhavan occupant has increased as consultations on the presidential election is set to gather momentum with the expected arrival here of BSP leader Ms Mayawati and DMK chief M Karunanidhi.
Ms Mayawati is scheduled to arrive here on Friday on her first visit to the capital since assuming charge as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister last week. She would be meeting Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and possibly also Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. There were also speculations about the possible arrival here of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Mr Karunanidhi on Friday.
While the consultations with Ms Mayawati and Mr Karunanidhi can go a long way in UPA’s search for a candidate, what has added to the increasing suspense over the choice is the lack of any clue from Ms Gandhi about her preferences in the wake the seeming setback to her Left partners’ push for External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature. All that is known about her preference is that the next President should be a Congress nominee.
Mr Mukherjee has, in the meanwhile, left here on a week-long visit abroad that will take him to Cyprus, Libya, Germany and Belgium. He will be back here just around the time of the Election Commission’s expected notification of the election early next month.
While the names of Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Home Minister Shivraj Patil have been making the rounds in the political circles as Ms. Gandhi’s likely preferences for the top job, there has not been any signal of forward movement in this regard.
The Opposition NDA has sought to create confusion in the UPA camp. Sources in the BJP have claimed that its senior leaders were beginning to sound Ms  Mayawati and Mr Karunanidhi over the election. It appeared that the NDA has not yet given up hopes of a second term for incumbent President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. That, however, hinges on a requisite consensus among parties, cutting across the NDA-UPA divide.
However, if the consensus approach to electing the next President were to make no headway, the NDA has also sent out signals for a fight, with incumbent Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as its nominee. Apparently, Mr Shekhawat himself is establishing contacts with his “friends” outside the NDA, including the BSP leader.
All this could well be aimed at stalling the election of the Congress chief’s handpicked nominee reaching the Rashtrapati Bhavan, given the fact that the composition of the Electoral College is loaded heavily against it.