WHEEL OF POLITICS: BJP president L K Advani's rath being given the final touches in Mumbai on Tuesday. Advani will launch a Prabodhan Swarna Yatra from the city on May 18.

NEW DELHI, May 13: The Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to go along with the United Front and the Congress on a consensus candidate for the post of President.

Despite controlling 46 perb cent of the electoral college for the Presidential polls, BJP leaders admit that they cannot influence the choice of the nominee for the top job in the country if their political rivals have a common candidate.

``The same anti-BJP lineup will go against us,'' a senior party functionary said wryly.

Although publicly BJP leaders have been asserting that they will back a consensus candidate for the post of President only if they have a say in the election of the Vice President, the party's private assessment is that the forthcoming polls are a lost cause.

So resigned is the BJP to the irony of its position that party president L K Advani will not even be in Delhi when the date for the Presidential elections is notified. He will be out in the heat and dust on his rath yatra at that point.

The BJP's huge presence in the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha will amount to something only if there is a disagreement between the UF and Congress on the presidential nominee. ``Then we become players,'' a party leader conceded.

However, cowed as they are by the ``anti-BJPism'' which forced the Vajpayee Government out of office in 13 days last year, party leaders have not dared to make any move to create differences among their rivals on this issue. ``If we become active, it will strengthen the anti-BJP platform,'' a functionary remarked. ``So we are keeping quiet and seeing what happens.''

A few hopefuls in the party have tried to float names of possible candidates the BJP could consider sponsoring, like eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani, former union minister Karan Singh and senior party leader Sikander Bakht. But so far, there are no takers on the other side.

Party sources disclosed that the BJP would ultimately have to back K R Narayanan who is the front runner for the post of President. Apart from the fact that the numbers are against them, party leaders are also anxious to be politically correct and not oppose a ``Dalit''.

The wild card in the pack is Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Kanshi Ram, who is perhaps the only leader who can dare to oppose Narayanan and not be politically ostracised.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.