Unfazed by the numbers against him, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat today entered the Presidential poll as an independent candidate backed by the NDA but its ally Shiv Sena broke ranks, announcing it would back UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil, a Maharashtrian.“It is Maharashtra’s fortune that a Marathi woman is for the first time becoming President. Those opposing it should be termed as wretched,” Sena chief Bal Thackeray told reporters in Mumbai.Though the BJP — its leadership was present by Shekhawat’s side when he filed his papers — had planned this as a show of NDA unity, the Sena and Trinamool Congress stayed away. But suspended Congress MP Natwar Singh and Bhim Singh of Panthers Party, which snapped ties with the Congress in J&K, showed up for Shekhawat’s nomination.Trinamool’s Mamata Banerjee continued to insist on a second term for A P J Abdul Kalam. In Patna, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, also rooting for Kalam, said he would now go with the NDA decision to back Shekhawat.Meanwhile, Shekhawat claimed he had the numbers. “I am fighting to win.”
