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OTHER STORIES RELATED TO COVER The President Lives... Battle for the Bridesmaid Split Decision

On July 24, 2002, Kocheril Raman Narayanan will lay down office as the 11th President of India. Sixty days before that the Election Commission will initiate an elaborate process to elect his successor. The process will involve an electoral college of 776 MPs and 4,120 members of Legislative Assemblies spread across 30 states (see graphic). Voting itself will take place in the second week of July.

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K.R. Narayanan, 81 If the President wins a second term, his will be the first re-election since 1957 FOR: Biggest backers are the left parties who consider him a fellow traveller and the next best thing to Jyoti Basu. May win support from Vajpayee in case the prime minister wants to prevent a contentious election. Sonia and Congress would prefer him too. He was supportive of her in March 1999. AGAINST: Fairly unpopular with the BJP and the rest of NDA for being an antagonistic president. Public statements that could be interpreted as anti-Government and his decision to vote in 1998 haven't made him popular with the ruling alliance. Parties like the TDP openly talk about his health. Can only win as a consensus candidate. Agreeing to him would imply a grudging choice for the Government.

India's main political parties have not begun serious discussions on who the next President should be. Nevertheless the grapevine in Delhi has been busy identifying potential candidates for the largely ceremonial yet crucial office.

In an era of fragmented mandates and coalition governments, all parties see it prudent to have a man at Raisina Hill who is friendly or, at best, non-antagonistic. In a hung Lok Sabha, the President's power to swear in the man he feels is most deserving of the prime minister's job is broad. He can set his own precedents and, in theory, make just about anyone the head of government.

So who will India's 12th President be? The early list of candidates is marked as much by eminence as by familiarity. Many of the names have been heard in earlier presidential poll years. P.C. Alexander is the governor of Maharashtra and served as a civil servant. L.M. Singhvi is a Rajya Sabha member who used to be high commissioner to the UK.

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P.C. Alexander, 81 The Maharashtra governor narrowly missed being Congress nominee in 1997 FOR: The BJP's keen on him because he's a Christian and it thinks this will go down well in terms of image. As Maharashtra governor, he had no problems with the Shiv Sena-BJP government (1994-99) and batted correctly even when the Srikrishna Commission report on the 1993 riots came in. AGAINST: He was principal secretary in Indira Gandhi's PMO. But that he's a Christian could upset Sonia's chances of becoming prime minister in case he's president. Hence Congress doubts. Also can Kerala get the presidency for the second successive time? At present Alexander is the frontrunner. Could become first Christian president.

At various times Karan Singh has been ambassador and Union minister, philosopher and politician. By his own reckoning, he has been the man most deserving of Rashtrapati Bhavan for at least 20 years now. Jyoti Basu, former chief minister of West Bengal, is the diehard communist's candidate for prime minister and, failing that, president.

In addition to these regulars and the incumbent Narayanan-who, if he gets a second term, will match the first Indian President Rajendra Prasad's achievement-a host of other names are also doing the rounds. Among them is former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, recently acquitted in the JMM bribery case. But a close aide, Bhuvnesh Chaturvedi, denies Rao is in the running. "His name is only in the media," he says.

K.C. Pant, Planning Commission deputy chairman and as stodgy and non-contentious a customer as can be, has had his hat thrown into the ring. A former Congressman-and therefore presumably not unacceptable to Sonia Gandhi's party-Pant is trusted by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who has appointed him special interlocutor in Jammu and Kashmir.

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K.C. Pant, 70 Planning panel deputy chief brings in the north Indian Brahmin quotient Nobody opposes him. Equally, nobody really wants him. Safe and stodgy, he could be the proverbial dark horse. FOR: No known enemies, lineage (he's Govind Ballabh Pant's son). Was a Congress defence minister before moving to the BJP and, eventually, becoming Vajpayee's envoy to the Kashmiri militant groups. Since the presidency usually alternates between north and south, he's being talked about. AGAINST: Is dour, stodgy and a political lightweight. There's no compelling reason why he should be India's president. Also can a northern Brahmin prime minister back a caste cousin? May be a trifle politically injudicious.

The virtues of a consensus are dutifully acknowledged by almost all political groups. Says a BJP Union minister, "The President's election is not strictly a matter of numbers. It is a constitutional office in which there is not much politics. There should be a consensus." Noble thoughts notwithstanding, politicians and pundits are punching away at their calculators, trying to make sense of electoral college arithmetic. If a contest does take place, it will be the keenest battle for the presidency since 1969, when V.V. Giri defeated K. Neelam Sanjiva Reddy thanks to second preference votes (see box).

The 1969 race eventually split the Congress. This year's battle may only break hearts and shatter cherished dreams. For Alexander, 81, this is the last realistic attempt. He missed the bus in 1997 when the Congress and the United Front preferred Malayali Dalit Narayanan to Malayali Christian Alexander. At 79, former law minister Ram Jethmalani is in the same boat. He was a candidate in 1992 but got only 2,704 votes.

Singhvi, Karan Singh and Najma Heptullah-the Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson who can, frankly, hope for little more than a shot at the vice-presidency (see box)-may have age on their side but that will hardly be a consolation. Some of the candidates have been lobbying for at least six months, working on the electors, chatting up party bosses, meeting chief ministers and hosting dinners whether at home or at Delhi's India International Centre or elsewhere.

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P.V. Narasimha Rao, 81 If elected the former prime minister will be the first of his tribe to be president. A Rao presidency is a piquant idea but unlikely. He is admired, but from a distance. Even so, there is a buzz. FOR: Freed of taint because he's been acquitted in the JMM bribery scandal. Erudite man, deft prime minister. If Congress picks him, it could score a symbolic point over the BJP. Rao, after all, is the BJP's favourite Congressman. AGAINST: Sonia, his own party chief, doesn't trust him. The badshah of intrigue could leave the whole political class guessing if a hung Lok Sabha results while he's president. Muslim antipathy: he was prime minister when the Babri Masjid fell.

More than being personality-driven though, the election of the next President will be a ferociously fought political event. It will put the tenuous National Democratic Alliance on test once again. In the India of old, the prime minister used to in effect appoint the President. In 1982, Indira Gandhi plucked Giani Zail Singh out of the Home Ministry and placed him in Rashtrapati Bhavan. The self-declared rubber stamp happily proclaimed that he would sweep the floor if his leader asked him to.

Vajpayee has no Indira-type luxury. His ability to get his choice accepted will depend on his political acumen and persuasive skills. The BJP is known to be keen on Alexander, who is in the good books of even the Shiv Sena. The saffron logic is that plumping for Alexander will boost the party's "secular" credentials. "Post 9/11, a Christian president will enhance the country's image," argues a BJP Union minister. "Alexander is a candidate the Congress will find hard to reject. A Christian candidate will be acceptable to our allies."

Also high on Vajpayee's list is Singhvi. Appointed high commissioner to London by Narasimha Rao's Congress government, Singhvi came back to India only to be sent to Parliament by the BJP in 1998. A constitutional expert, Singhvi has good equations with everybody from Sonia to Vajpayee to influential NRIs-he presided over the infamous boat party on the Thames organised by the Hindujas for a parliamentary team in 1995. At present, all he's willing to say is, "I'll be a candidate if the NDA sponsors me."