National

Govt. hopes Narayanan will say `no'

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI MAY 20. Now that the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has politely but firmly rejected the idea of supporting the candidature of the President, K.R. Narayanan, for a second term in office on the plea that he is not acceptable to the National Democratic Alliance, the Government is hoping that Mr. Narayanan himself will decline to contest the July presidential polls.

The assumption is that Mr. Narayanan will not like to contest for a second term in the face of opposition by the NDA and a possible defeat. The Opposition parties will be forced to talk of consensus on another candidate, and it is at that time that Mr. Vajpayee will possibly reveal the name of the person favoured by him and the NDA for the top job, sources in the Prime Minister's Office said.

Although Mr. Vajpayee has begun the process of ``consultation'' with the Opposition parties — he has already held a meeting of NDA leaders where he was authorised to select a candidate and try and build a consensus — he has not yet talked in terms of support for any candidate. Only at the informal level, BJP leaders have indicated that the Maharashtra Governor, P.C. Alexander, could be their favoured candidate. But the Prime Minister maintained a studied silence in his meeting with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, on Sunday, and with the CPI general secretary, A.B. Bardhan, today, mentioning no names.

Once the Narayanan card is played out, the NDA believes that the Opposition will be in a better frame of mind to consider a consensus on possible names suggested by the NDA. The argument is that the Opposition should have no problem agreeing to the candidature of Dr. Alexander. It is being pointed out that while India has had a Sikh president and several Muslim Presidents, there has been none from the Christian community.

At the same time, the silence of the NDA on who it favours has also led to speculation that at the last minute the Prime Minister would pull out a name from among the several RSS Governors serving in different States.

The name of the Vice-President, Krishan Kant, is also being talked about.

Recently, he has been on the move — he was in Hyderabad and then in Tirupati — wooing the Telugu Desam Party and praying for success?

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