APJ Abdul Kalam seen as likely candidate for president

Faced with a potentially problematic situation ahead of the election of the next president, the government yesterday talked about seeking a political consensus even as a number of parties suggested the name of former president APJ Abdul Kalam.

However, UPA ally Sharad Pawar, who earlier voiced support for Kalam, seems to have changed his stance slightly.

In what could upset the Congress' calculations, the Samajwadi Party (SP) suggested a second term for Kalam, which could lead to a virtual repeat of the 2002 scenario which ended up with the scientist's election to the top post following a near complete political consensus, apart from the Left.

Shahid Siddiqui of the Samajvadi Party, yesterday reminded it was party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav who had first proposed Kalam's name in 2002.

This time, too, the party leaders are hopeful of winning the support of the BJP-led NDA and even UPA allies such as Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.

The BJP, however, is yet to make it clear where it stood on the matter.

On his part, Pawar seems to have shifted his position from a day earlier, when he was quoted as saying that he favoured a person with "not too much" of a political mind.