Atal Bihari Vajpayee turned down suggestions to become President in 2002: His Adviser

Published by Prabhat Prakashan, the book will be released by Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Housing and Urban Affairs, on October 18.

Tandon, who was granted the rank of an additional secretary, recounts tales from his PMO days in a section in the book called “From the Author’s Personal Diary”.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani in 1999. (Express archive)

Recounting the suggestions to make Vajpayee the NDA’s presidential candidate, Tandon writes, “Vajpayee outright dismissed suggestions emanating from within his own team to move to Rashtrapati Bhavan and leave the premiership to his number two L K Advani.”

“He warned that an incumbent Prime Minister becoming a President with the help of a majority in the Electoral College wouldn’t augur well in a parliamentary democracy like India and would set a very dangerous precedent and that he would be the last person to support such a move,” the book says.

Later, Vajpayee, who still had two years left as Prime Minister, invited Congress leaders to evolve a consensus for the President’s post.

“I remember, Sonia Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee and Dr Manmohan Singh came to meet him. Vajpayee virtually surprised them by disclosing officially for the first time that the NDA had decided to field Dr A P J Abdul Kalam for the Presidential election,” Tandon writes.

“There was a pin-drop silence for a few seconds. Sonia Gandhi broke the ice and said ‘We are flabbergasted by your choice. We have no option but to support him. But will discuss your proposal and take a decision.’ The rest is history.”

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav later also announced his party’s support to Kalam. According to the book, announcing his party support, Mulayam said, “Dr Kalam is my choice”.

Tandon also recounts that before the Kalam’s name was announced, there was “speculation” that the NDA might consider the then Maharashtra Governor Dr P C Alexander as its presidential candidate for the 2002 elections.

“I was in the Vajpayee PMO and some influential people were closely in touch with Dr Alexander at a personal level and were sounding him for the top post, giving the impression as if they were Vajpayee’s emissaries,” Tandon writes in his book.

“They would try to convince Vajpayee that fielding Dr Alexander, a Christian, would embarrass Congress president Sonia Gandhi and in a way block her chances of becoming the Prime Minister in future as the country couldn’t afford to have Christians as President as well as Prime Minister,” he writes.