Was never in the running for President: Ex-Vice President Hamid Ansari in his memoirs

NEW DELHI: Former Vice President M. Hamid Ansari has stoutly denied that he was in the running for President to succeed Pratibha Patil, depreciating the "Byzantine" process that dragged his name into the picture and even played golf on the day the decision was to be announced. But one is left wondering whether he nurtured a secret desire that he held close to his chest.

"Media speculation initially named former president Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as a possible candidate; he, however, denied it. One report quoted the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha saying that the BJP will not support anyone connected to the Congress," Ansari writes in his memoirs, "By Many A Happy Accident: Recollections Of A Life" (Rupa), which released on January 28.

"A commentator (in May 2012) said that `almost no one is thinking of the other man in the race, who has done his work quietly for 10 years, always speaking his mind but never in a way that it causes controversy: Hamid Ansari`.