For, the announcement of Pratibha Patil, the 71-year-old Governor of Rajasthan and a Congress loyalist, as the UPA-Left combine’s candidate for President, was more accident than design.

That’s why there were conflicting reports on whose idea this was. “We had reached a logjam and we had to get out of it. It was at this point that we said that the Congress should propose a woman’s name for the President’s post,” CPI(M) Politburo member and MP Sitaram Yechury told The Indian Express.

Officials in the government, however, said it was the PM himself who had prepared a list of not one, but 10 women, for the job.

DMK leader M Karunanidhi had another take. “This is the beginning of 33 per cent reservation for women,” he said. Asked whether it was his idea to field a woman, he said: “It was a marvellous idea that came up in everybody’s mind.”

One thing, however, was clear. The “marvellous idea” emerged only after the Left parties refused to relent on their opposition to Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s candidature forcing Congress president Sonia Gandhi to change her list of nominees. With two years to go for the general elections and Mayawati on her side, the Congress president couldn’t afford any “visible” confrontation with the Left.

This morning, Karunanidhi, who acted as an interlocutor between the UPA and the Left, discussed all probable candidates with Left leaders. The five names, Shivraj Patil, Dr Karan Singh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Motilal Vora and Arjun Singh, which had been floated by the Congress leadership last week were all discussed in the meeting. The Left was not ready to endorse any of these.

When the PM and the Congress president met Left leaders in the afternoon, the discussion narrowed down to two names: Shivraj Patil and Karan Singh.

The Left leadership tried to float the name of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee once again but the Congress brushed it aside saying he could not be spared from the government. The Left then re-iterated its opposition to the names proposed by the Congress leadership. It was at this stage that the prospect of a woman as President was floated to clear this “logjam,” as CPM’s Yechury put it.

Sonia announced Pratibha Patil’s name in the presence of the Prime Minister, Karunanidhi, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Left leaders, including Prakash Karat, Abani Roy and A B Bardhan, among others. She also got UP Chief Minister Mayawati’s consent. It’s a “matter of pride and a historic moment in the 60th year of our Republic,” said Sonia, adding that the UPA would set up a coordination committee to ensure her victory.

Both the PM and Sonia later called up former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee asking for the NDA’s support to make Patil a consensus choice. According to a statement issued by the BJP late tonight, Sonia Gandhi told Vajpayee that it was for the first time that she had sought support from him but the former Prime Minister turned down the request saying “you announced the candidate without taking our opinion.”

“We, too, have our candidate and we are, therefore, unable to support you,” the statement quoted Vajpayee as having told Sonia.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar said Pratibha Patil should not be projected as a Maharashtrian candidate. It was in this context that he intervened to correct Sonia as she was announcing her name. “Her name is Pratibha Devisingh Patil Shekhawat and not Pratibha Patil,” said the NCP chief.

Patil’s ancestors had migrated from Rajasthan to Maharashtra. She was also married in Chhoti Losal village in Sikar district of Rajasthan and her in-laws’ house is located 38 km from Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s native village of Khachariawas. Patil who has been a loyalist of Nehru-Gandhi family was the Maharashtra Congress chief when Sharad Pawar had toppled the Congress government led by Vasantdada Patil to become the Chief Minister of the state for the first time in 1979.

With the issue of Presidential nominee settled, the focus of the UPA and the Left has shifted to the Vice-President’s post. The DMK is also likely to be rewarded for its support to the Congress, with possibly a Ministerial job for Karunanidhi’s daughter and newly elected Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi who met Sonia today.

Pratibha Patil

• Born on: Dec 19, '34

• Education: MA, LLB

Political Career

• First elected MLA in '62, she remained in the Maharashtra Assembly till '85. Held several portfolios as state minister. Was also leader of the Opposition

• Rajya Sabha member from '85-'90; Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson from Nov '86-88

• Maharashtra PCC chief from '88-'90

• Elected to Lok Sabha in '91

• Became Rajasthan Governor in Nov 2004

Other Activities

• Chairperson of a sugar factory in Jalgaon

• Managing a school for poor children of Vimukta Jamatis and nomadic tribes

• Nursery school for OBC children

• Table tennis champ, won college tournaments

• Organised women homeguards in Jalgaon, was commandant during the Chinese aggression in '62