Oppn still wants reluctant Sharad Pawar to contest Presidential elections

Even though Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar has turned down the offer to contest presidential elections, the Opposition is still banking upon him to enter the fray. A day ahead of the luncheon meeting of Opposition leaders hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss the possible names, sources said Pawar (76) and Gopal Krishna Devadas Gandhi (71), the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, have emerged as the front-runners to take on the NDA candidate for the top Constitutional post.

Even after Pawar rejected the offer, many Opposition leaders here said that they will try to convince the Maratha leader to contest. Though BJP President Amit Shah has managed to bridge the razor-thin deficit in the electoral college to a large extent by eliciting support from YSR Congress and both factions of the AIADMK, opposition leaders believe that Pawar's charisma will make many parties even within the NDA switch sides.

Gandhi has also emerged as a choice in case Pawar refuses to entertain the offer. He already has enough experience of Rashtrapati Bhawan and the intricacies of the President's responsibilities as he has been the secretary to President KR Narayanan from 1997 to 2000, and was earlier the joint secretary to President R Venkataraman from 1987 to 1992.