Thursday, December 24, 2009

The only Active President of India so far

None other than great Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam ji. Though, President don't have much power to do, he was not wasting government money for useless travels and was inspiring young generation where ever he went to give a talk/chat with people. I remember the discussions that were happening while electing the next President when Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and other lady (don't remember her name) were contending for it. Now, I feel what would have happened if the lady was selected, we would have missed such a great president.

Just now heard that our current President of India,Prathibha Patil, brought her 3 dozen relatives along with her while travelling to some other place. We, the poor tax payers continue to pay taxes to let the politicians enjoy with our money. :-)

4 comments:

tnsatish said...

If I remember correctly, BJP initially proposed P.C.Alexander for President in 2002. He was the governor of Mahrashtra then, and he was of Congress. But, Sonia Gandhi did not like, BJP proposing a Congress person, and told them that, Congress would not support him. Then, they brought Abdul Kalam. I don't think BJP proposed anybody else.

Pallavi Palleti said...

Nop. I just cross checked over web and got her name. She is Lakshmi Sehgal and here is some info on the same. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Left-to-field-Capt-Lakshmi-Sahgal-for-President-poll/articleshow/12955242.cms

tnsatish said...

We should not see the presidential elections compared with elections for MLA or MP. For the elections of MLA and MP, we can never know, who would be the final winner. But, in presidential elections, we can tell much before the elections (There are two exceptions in this, written at the bottom.)

If a party proposes a candidate for president, then all the party members would vote for that person only (unless there are exceptional cases). In 2002 presidential elections, both BJP and Congress supported Abdul Kalam. So, everyone votes for him only. BJP had slightly less than 50%, and it needed support from some other party to win their candidate. That's why, it could not put P.C.Alexander, since Congress rejected him. When BJP chose Abdul Kalam, all parties (except left and few other small parties) agreed to that proposal. They got more than 90% of the vote share. The candidate who is opposite to Kalam is not an exceptional candidate. So, everyone voted for him, and he won. We don't need to worry that, the other candidate would have won.

Left parties have the habit of putting some candidate or other (except in 1977), so that, there is no unanimous election.

There were only two exceptions so far in the presidential elections.
First one was in 1969. Congress supported Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy as the presidential candidate. But, Indira Gandhi wanted to support V.V.Giri. So, she put V.V.Giri as the independent Candidate, and asked all the voters to vote according to their heart. In that election, V.V.Giri won with very close margin.
Second one was in 2007. Bhairon Singh Shekawath contested as an Independent and BJP supported him. He had close relationships with almost all the party members. Because of all those relationships, there was expectation that, other parties also would vote for him. But, that did not happen.

Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy and Bhairon Singh Shekawath are the top two presidential candidates who had secured good percentage of votes but lost in the elections.

Except in those two cases, "What happens if this president had lost" does not make any sense. The president was pre-determined in all other cases.

Ashok Babu said...

Pl dont simply praise Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. With due regards to Dr APJ Kalam, I am not at all satisfied with the way he acted as a president. See http://mizzles.blogspot.com/2007/07/elections-for-13th-president-of-india.html