New Delhi: A day after a new Patil emerged the UPA candidate for the presidential polls, replacing Congress' top contender Shivraj Patil, political circles are abuzz with speculation as to what went against the Union Home Minister and what has gone in favour of Pratibha Patil.
Congress sources say the top leadership of the party was almost decided on Shivraj Patil but it was the intransigent Left which played spoilsport at the last hour. In fact, when DMK chief Karunanidhi first met the Left leaders on Thursday morning to discuss the issue, Shivraj Patil was the name he was carrying.
But the Left leaders told him in no uncertain terms that Patil will not be acceptable to them under any circumstances. In fact, on an earlier occasion too the Left leaders had made their displeasure known about Shivraj Patil as a choice.
"Our objection was that he doesn't fit the criteria we have laid down for a presidential candidate." This is what CPI-M leader Nilotpal Basu said of the Left's problems with the senior Congressman.
From the very beginning, the Left parties had been insisting that they want to have a candidate with impeccable secular credentials, understanding of political complexities and one who could ensure a balance between the judiciary, Parliament and the executive.
It is on this ground that the Left had rejected the name of Dr Karan Singh at the very first instance. The Left's ''reservations'' about Dr Singh was that he had a 'Hindutva leaning' and he is from the 'royal lineage'.
The Congress had selected Shivraj Patil as its candidate after pulling out External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee from the race. But the Left was not amenable. The Left camp insists that their opposition to Patil's candidature was not based not on his performance as the Union Home Minister or his pliability as it was speculated.
"The problem was with his political background, which was questionable," Left sources said. "For one, he was defeated in Lok Sabha elections. And when he had won an election earlier, it was with the active support of the Sangh Parivar," they point out.
That is where Patil seems to have failed to fit the most crucial condition of an "impeccable secular credential". Patil's devotion to controversial godman Sai Baba also reportedly came in the way. "Such open display of obeisance to a godman from a man who would be President is unacceptable," a Left leader has gone on record as saying.
Meanwhile, what went in favour of Pratibha Patil remains a mystery. For, the original choice of a woman candidate for both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi was reportedly noted Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande. There was even some sort of a political consensus around this name. But Deshpande's age, reportedly, went against her.
Congress sources say the choice of Pratibha Patil was 'momentous'. The decision came at the last hour after the UPA camp was left in a quandary with the Left's refusal to accept Shivraj Patil and the Congress' reluctance to field External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. It was then that the Rajasthan Governor's name cropped up.
In fact, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi contacted Patil only on Thursday afternoon to give a 'hint' regarding her nomination for Presidentship. Till then it was, as Patil herself later put it, never even a dream for her that she will ever occupy the top Constitutional post. And the rest, as they say, is history.
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