Mr. President

Never ever have the President Elections been so interesting in our country. At least I don't remember seeing a riveting contest like this one. On one hand Congress & Allies are looking for a rubber stamp President like Pratibha Patil who concurs with whatever Gandhi Parivaar says and on the other hand BJP & Allies want someone who will help them to topple the inefficient incumbent Government. There are no talks of merit, just the usual religion, caste, creed and regional forces at play. 

Pranab Mukherjee's name is topping the list for :

1. Bengali (Will keep Mamta's popularity at bay) (regional factors)

2. Gandhi Family Loyalist.

3. He will ensure that BJP is not given a free hand in running the Govt. if they happen to come back to power. (Isn't that what Presidents and Governors are made for)

Then comes the name of APJ Abdul Kalam :

1. Muslim Tamilian (NDA would be seen secular) (religion & regional)

2. He won't let Rahul or Priyanka become Prime Minister (previously he refused Sonia Gandhi the same because of citizenship issues)

3. Immensely popular among youth.

Congress will never want Kalam as the next President for he is the one who didn’t allow Sonia to become the Prime Minister at the behest of Subramanian Swamy's petition to him during his last tenure. BJP wouldn’t want Pranab Mukherjee to occupy Raisina Hill for if they come back to power, their situation would somehow become similar to their situation in most of the states where the Congress appointed Governors are giving them a hard time.

But biases of these two national parties won’t be the determining factor this time around. For in the end, it’s always the numbers which do the talking. To be specific, the principal parties (Congress & BJP) can’t determine the President on their own for they are heavily dependent on the regional political parties especially SP, TMC, AIADMK, BJD and BSP.

It was only two days back that M&M (Mamta and Mulayam) in an explosive press conference had jointly declared their support for APJ, which was seen by many as a direct challenge to the Congress Supremo - Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. But as expected the empire struck back and in no time Mulayam Singh (true to this nature) changed his sides and declared SP's 'unconditional' support to Pranab's candidature. Though it is not yet clear as to why he declared his support to the UPA, but in the power corridors of Delhi its being said that if he hadn’t done so, CBI would have been unleashed on him (for the disproportionate case) and the GoI would have done everything in their power to stall UP's development by limiting the funds allotted. Mulayam not only crushed Didi's hopes of challenging the Congress High Command but also ensured that NDA would be reduced to a mere participant in the voting process.

Here’s what the ‘official’ stance of national players is on the basis of media ‘sources’  

Party	Proposed Candidate
Congress	Pranab Mukherjee
BJP	APJ / PA Sangma
SP	Pranab Mukherjee
BSP	Pranab Mukherjee
TMC	APJ Abdul Kalam
Left	Pranab Mukherjee
NCP	Pranab Mukherjee
NC	Pranab Mukherjee
AIADMK	PA Sangma
JD (U)	Undecided
TDP	Undecided
BJD	PA Sangma

It looks certain that Pranab Da would be the next President unless ‘sanity’ prevails amongst the Non-UPA political parties and they collectively pitch for Kalam's candidature.

Some questions remain unanswered :

1. Was Pranab Mukherjee Sonia's first choice? 

2. Shouldn't it be left to the discretion of MP/MLA's of different parties to take the final call while voting for a President? Why should the Parties issue a whip?

3. Can cross-voting be expected?

4. Should the President of the world's largest democracy be political or non-political?