Presidential poll: Cong search narrows down to Pranab, Patil

The Congress' search for a Presidential candidate has, according to sources, now been narrowed down to Home Minister Shivraj Patil and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

With Congress President Sonia Gandhi having left for the Netherlands on a visit, the task of laying the groundwork for a Congress candidate has been left to the core group of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister A K Antony, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and political secretary to the Congress president Ahmad Patel.

Gandhi has, top sources insist, made her choice of Patil very clear but the top leaders of the party point out that his candidature may well run the risk of cross-voting by Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

"Mukherjee is indispensable to the UPA government and yet he is the only candidate on whom all parties agree and is capable of defeating Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in a straight contest," said a senior Congress leader.

Indeed Shekhawat, after his decision to cut loose from the NDA and seek votes as an Independent, has raised worries in the Congress camp, probably the only reason that Mukherjee is still in the fray.

Shekhawat's aides are confident that the vice president will be able to pull off a shock victory on the basis of his political goodwill across the board. "Some third front constituents have already promised votes to Shekhawat, if not officially then through cross-voting. After all, he is Bhaironbaba," said a Shekhawat aide.

"We don't seen Shivraj Patil posing a great challenge to Shekhawat," said the aide. Sources say that after Gandhi's return from the Netherlands, the PM and the Congress president will meeting not just UPA constituents with a choice of candidate but will also meet former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to give the NDA a chance to decide on a consensus candidate for the President's post.

With the imminent notification of the elections, time seems to be running out for both sides to manoeuvre.