I had just returned from an official trip to Botswana in my capacity as Vice President of India about one year before President Zail Singh's term was scheduled to end. That was when I first received a hint from Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that he intended nominating me as the Congress party's candidate for the high office of the President of India.

In: P.127. - Commissions and Omissions by Indian Presidents and Their Conflicts with the Prime Ministers Under the Constitution: 1977-2001