Kalam unlikely to contest, conveys reluctance to Advani

Jun 18, 2012 |

New Delhi

Tags:

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has decided not to contest for the post of the President despite efforts by BJP to persuade him to enter the fray.

Sources close to Kalam said that a formal announcement by the former President is expected very shortly.

Kalam conveyed his reluctance to contest when BJP leader L.K. Advani called him thrice to persuade him to be the Opposition's common candidate against UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee, sources said.

Kalam, the predecessor to current President Pratibha Patil, told Advani that his 'conscience' is not permitting him to contest, sources said.

BJP was trying hard to persuade him to contest, with Advani deputing his close aide Sudheendra Kulkarni to meet him twice on Monday.

Kalam's candidature is being pushed by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who broke ranks with UPA to prop him.

The former President has been insisting that he could consider entering the fray only if there was surety about his victory.

Several opposition leaders reportedly talked to Kalam over phone yesterday to know about his plans.

BJP was more in favour of fielding Kalam than former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma, who is AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa and BJD head Naveen Patnaik's choice.

Even JD(U), which wants a consensus for Mukherjee, may support Kalam as he shares a good equation with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/162319" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-6f7b94d3b7e14a8b34882760dff1f57c" value="form-6f7b94d3b7e14a8b34882760dff1f57c" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="81272022" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>