**Bhubaneswar:** According to sources, a strong new contender has emerged in the race for the President’s election. The External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj name is doing rounds to become NDA’s candidate to succeed Pranab Mukherjee as the next President of India.
The 65-year-old leader commands respect across party lines and is a hot favourite for a variety of reasons. She is a strong woman contender who enjoys a political stature. She has built critical associations across parties because of her long standing career as a parliamentarian.
Considered as one of the best orators in the present Lok Sabha, she became a minister in Haryana at the age of 25. She had her stint as Chief Minister of Delhi, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Union Health Minister and Leader of Opposition.
It is believed that though a decision was made earlier on not to field any a political candidate just for the sake of building a consensus, but Sushma qualified in every criteria laid down by the BJP top brass and at the same time, had the backing of the Sangh.
The other names for the top post doing rounds are Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Jharkhand Governor Draupadi Murmu, BJP veterans MM Joshi and LK Advani. But as both the senior BJP leaders were chargesheeted in the Babri demoltion case, their chances got reduced.
Meanwhile, consultation process in both the BJP and the Opposition camps shifted into high gear on Wednesday as filing of nominations for the presidential election began. The last date for filing of nomination is June 28.
A BJP source said the NDA candidate is likely to file nomination before June 24, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave for his official trip to the US.
Let us wait and watch if the popular BJP leader makes it to the top post or not.