Pitroda’s name emerge as a contender of President
AHMEDABAD: India has to elect 16th president in July 2012 and the latest name which has emerged as contenders is Gujarati techie Sam Pitroda . He emerged as a dark horse in the race to become India’s next President. He is native of Tikar village in Halvad taluka of Surendranagar district and a physics graduate of M S University, Satyanarayan Gangaram Panchal, alias Sam Pitroda. He was born in Orissa and is the son of a carpenter who had migrated to Orissa in search of work.
The name of Pitroda is being discussed in political circles from last two weeks especially when he accompanied Rahul Gandhi for the release of the Congress manifesto in Uttar Pradesh. He brings telecom and computer revolution in the country in 21st century with full support from former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and presently he is the working as the advisor to PM on information infrastructure and innovation. He was also the chairman of the Knowledge Commission during the UPA-1 regime. He is also an advisor to Mamata Banerjee for the ‘Resurgent Bengal’ campaign and shared a good relationship with Sharad Pawar and Naveen Patnaik.
Since Congress has got weakened because of poor performance in assembly polls, its allies are in a mood to bargain hard in return for support on this vital issue. Hence a candidate with maximum acceptance would be safer from the point of view of Congress. Other front-runners for the top post includes vice-president Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and statesman Dr Karan Singh. Ansari is considered to be the obvious choice for this position.
