Shivraj or Shinde Cong V-P nominee?

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The names of Punjab governor Shivraj Patil and power minister Sushilkumar Shinde are doing the rounds for the post of vice-president in the Congress circles.

Speculations are rife about the Congress’ nominees for the post after Mr Pranab Mukherjee filed his nomination papers for the President’s post on Thursday.

Though the Congress is not in a “hurry” to announce its vice-presidential candidate early, the party managers are confident that the post will go to the Congress.

The Samajwadi Party had made it clear that it is not bargaining for the post for supporting Mr Mukherjee.

Mr Patil and Mr Shinde have been known for their loyalty to the Gandhi-Nehru family. Both have been in politics for over four decades and have proved elective merit several times.

While Mr Patil, the first Lingayat leader after vice-president Basappa Danappa Jatti, who worked at the national level in different capacities in the governments of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, Mr Shinde is a social face of the party who grew from zero.

Mr Shinde, a self-made man was the first dalit chief minister of Maharashtra under whose leadership the Congress had won the 2004 state Assembly polls.

The names of both Mr Patil and Mr Shinde were considered for the President’s post in 2007 and 2012 mainly because they have been enjoying the confidence of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. In fact, Mr Shinde had fought the vice-president’s election against Bhairon Singh Shekhawat at the instance of Mrs Gandhi in 2002 when the Congress was in the Opposition.

Mr Patil had worked as the Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the Lok Sabha Speaker, was also the deputy leader of the Congress Party in the Lok Sabha when Mrs Gandhi was the Leader of Opposition.