Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat seems to have struck a chord with Muslim clerics after his offer to withdraw from the presidential elections if A PJ Abdul Kalam is given a second term. UPA-Left candidate Pratibha Patil’s recent comments linking the purdah system to the advent of Mughals has also helped in this regard.

Today, a large group of Muslims clerics, led by Maulana Masood Madani, who was for sometime a minister in the last Congress Government in Uttarakhand, called on Shekhawat and offered their support. “He is ready to sacrifice, but what is the Congress doing? If Kalam does not contest, we will propose Shekhawatjis name,” he said.

“We are calling upon all Muslim legislators not to vote in favour of those who make such wild allegations on one hand and are not ready to support Kalam on the other,” said Mufti Abdur Razzaq Saheb, a cleric from Bhopal.

The Vice-President’s political aides consider this a “master stroke”, for if Kalam declines the UNPA’s offer, Shekhawat’s name would be proposed as an Independent candidate who has the support of “all religions”. An indication of this came from Shekhawat himself. “The President should not come from any political party. It is a post that has to be above political considerations.” Hinting at how he has been flooded with support from the Muslim community, he added: “Subha se ye chhal raha hain.”

Undeterred by the numbers game which heavily titled against him, Shekhawat said: “No fight is difficult for me. I’ve been fighting elections since 1952. I have contested and won elections from up to three seats at the same time, not once, but four times, to increase the base and spread of my party.”