The process of filing nominations for the July 17 presidential election ended today as opposition nominee Meira Kumar submitted her papers, which were among the 108 sets that have been filed in all.
A total of 95 people have filed their nominations.
Barring two nominees -- Kumar and NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind -- the rest have either already been invalidated or are almost certainly going to be rejected during scrutiny tomorrow, for every nomination has to be signed by 50 members of the electoral college and endorsed by another 50.
Among those who eyed the top constitutional post were a proclaimed Guinness record holder, a Patel couple from Maharashtra and a candidate from Salem in Tamil Nadu who has contested 150 elections so far.
Kumar filed her nominations in the presence of Congress and other opposition party leaders. She was accompanied by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu also filed papers on behalf of Kovind, who had submitted three sets of papers on June 23 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While Gandhi and the leaders of 16 other non-NDA parties are proposers and seconders to Kumar's candidature, a number of Union ministers and leaders of NDA allies have endorsed Kovind.
Modi and BJP veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were among the prominent leaders who proposed former Bihar governor Kovind's name in the nomination papers, seconded by Union ministers and MLAs.
The presidential election is set to become a direct fight between Kumar and Kovind, who are likely to remain in the fray after scrutiny of nominations tomorrow.
According to sources in the Lok Sabha secretariat, 108 nominations were filed by a total of 95 candidates, with some having filed multiple papers. A candidate can file a maximum of four nominations.
Of these, 35 candidates have already been rejected as they have not submitted the mandatory security deposit of Rs 15,000. Many more nominations are likely to be rejected tomorrow during scrutiny, as a majority of them do not have the adequate numbers of proposers and seconders from the electoral college.
Under the rules, elected members of the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state legislative assemblies -- who comprise the electoral college -- can propose and second the name of a candidate for the post of the president, elected through a system of proportional representation.
Officials said some of the candidates mentioned their neighbours and relatives as proposers and seconders.
Some said they merely wanted to enter Parliament House.
"It seems these days more people are coming to Parliament to become president than going to Mumbai to become actors," a source in the Lok Sabha secretariat quipped.
The Patels from Mumbai, who filed their nomination papers on June 14, told officials they would like to share the two top constitutional posts of the country between them.
Saira Bano Mohammed Patel and Mohammed Patel Abdul Hamid said it would be "good" if one of them became the president and the other the vice president, an official said.
K Padmarajan from Salem, Tamil Nadu, is among those who have filed nominations for the presidential election. Known as "Election king", he has contested over 150 polls so far. The so-called Guinness record holder says he sports the maximum number of tattoos on his body.
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