Clear on Day One: V-P in Shekhawat stands for Veteran Politician at work

The signals were not missed by anybody. Shekhawat isn’t going to the decorative Vice-President, content to chair the Rajya Sabha till he is elevated to President if fortune smiles that way. BJP circles are already talking about the ‘‘second Vajpayee’’ in Delhi. Shekhawat’s close friendship with the Prime Minister is well known and there is an uncanny similarity in their politics, setting off speculation about the possibility of this old hand from Rajasthan emerging as a pivot in an uncertain political climate.

Few in the BJP have the ability to reach out across party barriers and get support on the strength of personal rapport. If Vajpayee proved it in sewing up a multi-party coalition and holding it together through four stormy years, Shekhawat displayed his skills in the unexpectedly large margin of victory he managed for himself in the vice-presidential elections.

Shellshocked Opposition parties still haven’t recovered from the fact that Shekhawat succeeded in siphoning off 50-odd votes from their ranks, mostly on the strength of his long friendship with non-Congress opposition leaders like Chandra Shekhar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Pawar and Laloo Yadav. And today, he showed that his constituency in Parliament includes Jayalalithaa and Mamata as well.

While protocol is bound to place restrictions on Shekhawat, it cannot hold him back from consolidating this constituency within the NDA and outside it.

And as chairman of the Rajya Sabha, he is ideally placed to do so.

It is significant that Shekhawat rejected all of Vajpayee’s earlier efforts to get him to make the shift to Delhi. He was offered a variety of posts, including a Cabinet berth, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, BJP president and even a gubernatorial assignment. But Shekhawat, who considers himself senior in politics to Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, is believed to have refused to accept a slot lower down in the hierarchy to Advani’s Number Two position.

Now, from his vantage point as Vice-President, he will not only be available to Vajpayee for support and advice, he can also play grand daddy to smaller parties looking for shelter.

After being sworn in today, Shekhawat gave a tiny peek into his mind when he reminded correspondents that no Vice-President in the past had the kind of mass base he enjoyed. ‘‘Nothing is possible without public support,’’ he said. ‘‘Nobody should forget this.’’

He said he had always kept an open house and appeared uncomfortable at the thought that security considerations would keep him away from the pleasures of receiving visitors and friends.