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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
Accompanied by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his senior Cabinet colleagues, the National Democratic Alliance presidential candidate A P J Abdul Kalam on Tuesday filed his nomination papers in Parliament.
Also present were the leaders of the parties supporting Kalam's candidature.
According to Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan, three sets of nomination papers were filed -- each with 50 proposers.
There was much excitement as the NDA nominee made his way in a procession to Parliament accompanied by Vajpayee, Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Defence Minister George Fernandes.
Among the leaders of the parties supporting the NDA and accompanying Kalam were the Telugu Desam Party chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his senior party colleague Amar Singh, and Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik.
Bahujan Samaj Party vice-president Mayawati and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee were also present.
The first set of nomination papers was filed by the Congress party led by chief Sonia Gandhi, followed by party members Shivraj Patil, Dr Manmohan Singh, P M Sayeed, Najma Heptullah, Ambika Soni, Arjun Singh and Ahmad Patel, among others.
They were followed by the NDA leaders led by Vajpayee, Advani and others.
Meanwhile, Kalam's much-awaited interaction with the national and international media was postponed for Wednesday.
The 11th President of India: Complete Coverage
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