Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat filed his nomination for the post of President of India on Monday. He would be contesting as an Independent candidate.

Shekhawat was accompanied by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani, Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh, Jaswant Singh, Sushma Swaraj, and host of other leaders.

George Fernandes [Images], the convenor of National Democratic Alliance and Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav were also present.

Seven chief ministers of BJP-ruled states were present to witness the filing of the nomination. These included Prakash Singh Badal, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Dr Raman Singh. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was represented by Sushil Modi.

Two sets of nomination papers with 266 signatures were filed by Shekhawat who went through every single signature carefully before presenting his papers to the secretary general of Lok Sabha who has been designated as the returning officer for the Presidential election.

Though he does not have the number in his favour Shekhawat is confident of his victory, claimed NDA leaders who said that they would launch a vigorous campaign to ensure the victory of their candidate.