"Main jeetunga! (I will win.) I have confidence that I will win because victory is possible in the circumstances," says Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the man who aims to become the next President of India.
In an exclusive interview to rediff.com, Vice President Shekhawat said: "Janabhavna mere saath hai (feelings of the people are with me)."
Shekhawat, who has seen it all and done it all in his political career spanning six decades, is composed and calculative just weeks before the election to the nation's high office.
The 84 year old veteran says age is no bar for him to do anything. He had fought and won his first election in 1952.
In the last six decades, he has been a police constable, a farmer, he has won elections 17 times to become either a legislator or parliamentarian and has been chief minister thrice before becoming Vice President. He has contested and won Rajasthan assembly elections 14 times.
From the Vice President's official residence on Maulana Azad Road in Delhi, he is set to post a challenge to the United Progressive Alliance-Left presidential nominee Pratibha Patil who is already on the defensive because of the charges levelled against her regarding her previous association with a co-operative bank in Maharashtra.
When asked if the presidential contest had become quite controversial this time because of the 'mudslinging', as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described it, Shekhawat takes a pause and says, "I have fought 20 to 25 elections. In elections such things happen."
When asked if the dignity of the Presidency and of the election itself had been eroded by the politics being played before out, he said, "Why did the controversy rake up? Why is the decorum of the event being affected? You should ponder over it. I need not comment over it because everything is coming in the papers."
When his family's links with Pratibha Patil, who is married to a Shekhawat, were pointed out, he said, "This is politics. Idhar bhai-bhai bhi ladte hain (Here even siblings fight against each other).
Shekhawat has close relations with many politicians like the National Congress Party's Sharad Pawar and and the AIADMK's Jayalalithaa.
When asked about how he maintained so many friendships across sections of the political class, he said, "If you don't keep ill-feelings for anyone in your heart, you can make great friends. The difference in ideology between friends does play a part in one's career but it will not stretch into life."
When asked about the secret of his stamina at the age of 84, Shekhawat candidly said, "I have gone through two open-heart surgeries. Once I had an angioplasty while two or three times I had minor aliments. But, not even once did my passion to work diminish. I love reading, talking to people and travelling."
Shekhawat ducked the question on what his focus will be if at all he wins the presidential election.
He said, "When I will win I will let you know. I have travelled all over India. There is not an issue of Indian life over which I have not spent time on. Do visit me when I win."
And what if he loses?
"I never think like that. I have not thought about it. I have confidence to win. I will win," he asserted.
On whether his win would have an effect on the government, Shekhawat smiled and said, "Farak to padega (there will be an impact). But I won't say anything about it."
Read the full text of the exclusive interview with Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Monday.
Graphic: The Presidential Hopefuls