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| Oppn to lobby for Shekhawat across party lines | | |
NEW DELHI, MAY 15
The main opposition BJP, which is believed to have decided to field Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as its candidate for presidential elections, today appeared set to lobby across party lines to win support for its nominee.
Senior BJP leader L K Advani told his party MPs that he believed that an NDA nominee for the highest office stood a good chance of success if they made full efforts to ensure their candidate's election as the country's next president.
"An NDA candidate can succeed if you all try hard," his deputy in the Lok Sabha Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who did not name the BJP's choice officially, quoted him as telling party MPs.
With new calculations emerging after Uttar Pradesh elections, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani and party chief Rajnath Singh met over the weekend and decided to name Shekhawat as a nominee for the upcoming presidential elections, party sources said.
"The NDA is likely to authorise Vajpayee to name the nominee officially. In the interim, leaders in the NDA will lobby across party lines to win support for the candidate from different quarters, political, bureaucratic as well as from those who have held top Constitutional positions," a party leader said.
BJP sources said President A P J Abdul Kalam had declined to make another bid for the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
"As far as the incumbent is concerned, he has opted out of the race because there may not be any consensus candidate this time," a source close to Rajnath Singh said.
The saffron party has also its eyes set on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's stand.
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