Column

Pratibha Patil was produced like a wild card. But she’s proved to be the ace of trumps. Just imagine. She’s a Rajput from Maharashtra with a Rajasthan connection and a Shekhawat to boot! Even the Congress was unaware that it had an all-in-one tucked away in its ranks. The scenario is too delicious. The nomination has caught Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in a pincer. Not many know that the NDA’s presidential aspirant is an old family friend of Patil’s husband, Devi Singh Shekhawat. The two families have known each other for several generations and their ancestral homes in Sikar district are barely 20 km apart.

Patil herself has been close to Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. In fact, a few months ago, she invited him to be the chief guest at the opening of a hospital in her home district of Amravati. He obliged. How could he refuse a Shekhawat bahu who is also the governor of his home state? It was only fitting that Patil should make Shekhawat’s residence one of her first ports of call in the Capital and seek the vice president’s blessings for the biggest contest of her political career.

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Ever since Patil’s name was announced as the UPA’s nominee for President, Shekhawat has been under tremendous pressure to show some gallantry. It’s the politically correct thing to do to support the first serious woman candidate for president. But BJP elders like Vajpayee and Advani haven’t dared to advise Shekhawat to withdraw in Patil’s favour. They realized that after six months of meticulous and intensive planning, he was too deeply
involved to cop out just like that. Such was his desperation that he traveled all the way to Kolkata to meet Jyoti Basu in an unsuccessful bid for Left support.

The only person who bit the bullet and put the suggestion to Shekhawat was another Rajput, BJP president Rajnath Singh. For his labours, Singh was reportedly snubbed by the veteran, who apparently told the BJP chief: “Tum abhi politics mein bachche ho.” Singh left with a flea in his ear and is now lying low.

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Patil’s nomination came almost as a relief from the monkey tricks and other shenanigans of the long list of wannabe presidents. While the Congress leadership was still in consultation mode with its allies, the aspirants whose names were being floated did some heavy lobbying of their own. Karan Singh called on CPI leader A B Bardhan to persuade the Left of his secular credentials. Moti Lal Vora tried to remind Mayawati of an IOU he thought he had because of the protection he had given her as UP governor in 1995 when violent SP supporters had surrounded the guesthouse in which she was staying.

Arjun Singh tried to activate the DMK and the Left in his favour as a quid pro quo for his decision to enforce OBC quotas in private educational institutions. He even threw away his walking stick for a few days to prove that he’s fighting fit and in good health. G Venkatswamy made a couple of tearful appearances in front of television cameras. Sushil Kumar Shinde’s supporters sent angry messages from Sholapur. But the biggest victim of the entire exercise has been Shivraj Patil.

His reputation is in tatters after being rejected by all the allies. The month long circus has left Sonia Gandhi with a discredited home minister and several disgruntled loyalists.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net