Click to play videoNew Delhi: The counting of votes for General Elections 2009 will be held on May 16 and after the results are out all eyes will be on the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
As the probability of a hung Parliament rises, what exactly are the choices in front of President Pratibha Devisingh Patil? If there is a hung Parliament who would the President call and who should get the first shot at becoming prime minister?
The Constitution is silent on such a situation. Although a government show have stability, viability and legality, but they do not count on the floor of the House.
Some experts suggest the single largest party be invited in the House, as presidents R Venkataraman and Shankar Dayal Shrma did in 1989 and 1996 respectively.
"Call the party with its pre-poll alliance partners which has a greater number than the other party. But I am not in favour of post-poll alliances because post-poll alliances obviously are clearly accentuated by clear opportunism,” said former attorney-general Soli Sorabjee.
But 2009 may not be a 1989. It might be more like 1998 with a fractured verdict and a House divided.
With no pre-poll alliance touching the half-way mark of 272, caution was the word that President KR Narayanana went by in 1998. Constitutional experts say that Narayanan's approach is more in tune with the times.
"It has to be not the pre-poll alliances because the pre-poll alliances are no longer scared. For stability you have to call the largest combination. It doesn't now matter any more because there is a confidence motion at the end as well," noted lawyer and constitutional expert Rajeev Dhawan.
So will it be the Venkataraman-Sharma model or will it be the Narayanan's style. That question will only be answered on May 16.
Deciding who to call would test President Patil's judgement as well as her political impartiality.
But one thing that is certain is that the final chapter of General Election 2009 would be written at her residence at the Raisina Hill and it could well provide the most exciting moment of India's search for its next prime minister.
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