The death of legendary chief election commissioner T.N. Seshan on Sunday has led to the expected outpouring of tributes and anecdotes about the man who single-handedly redefined the conduct of elections. But what has become a 'footnote' in the vast legacy of Seshan is his unsuccessful foray into elections.
The most high profile of these forays was his decision to contest the 1997 presidential election. Seshan was backed by only one party, which is currently making headlines for standing up to the BJP—the Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena's minuscule numbers in Parliament did little to help Seshan as he lost by an overwhelming margin to K.R. Narayanan, who had been vice president until then. Narayanan—who was supported by the Congress, BJP and other parties—won 956,290 votes in the electoral college, while Seshan secured a mere 50,631 votes, with support only from the Shiv Sena and some independent legislators.
The Shiv Sena announced support for Seshan after party founder and patriarch Bal Thackeray met him at a government guest house in Mumbai in June 1997.
Thackeray declared India needed a "strong president who could rise above caste and religion" to address its problems. Saamana, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, quoted Thackeray as saying, "There was no better alternative than Seshan," for the post of president. Thackeray lauded Seshan's work as chief election commissioner, praising him for working to remove "stinking mire from Delhi".
Rediff reported Thackeray had said Seshan's discipline and legacy of firm action meant he would surely clear the charge the president was a rubber stamp. When asked how the BJP, then the Shiv Sena's main ally, would perceive its support for Seshan, Thackeray declared, “More then the interests of the party, I look to the presidential election from the broader point of how best the nation will benefit.”
“Seshan is a man of action and principles and the whole nation would have voted for him had there been presidential-type of elections like in the United States of America,'' Thackeray said after the elections. Media reports had claimed Shiv Sena leaders were surprised by Thackeray's decision to back Seshan. The leaders even claimed the BJP was unhappy by Thackeray's move as it was not consulted. The Shiv Sena leaders attributed the decision to the perception that both Thackeray and Seshan shared the "the same traits and the mental frame".
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Seshan made one more, unsuccessful, poll foray. In 1999, he was given the Congress ticket to contest against then Union home minister L.K. Advani from the latter's stronghold of Gandhinagar. Seshan lost by nearly 2 lakh votes.
The 1997 election was not the last time the BJP and Shiv Sena differed on who should be president. In 2007, the Shiv Sena voted for the Congress candidate for president, Pratibha Patil, who eventually won. The BJP had then put up former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. In 2012, the Shiv Sena announced its support for another eventual winner, Pranab Mukherjee, even though the BJP-backed NDA had nominated P.A. Sangma.