New Delhi: Pratibha Patil is all set to become India's first woman President. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi declared Patil as UPA's nominee for India's highest post on Thursday evening.

The Congress revealed this ace up its sleeve when Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh realised that big names were not finding acceptance across the board.

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil had run into trouble because the Left said he lacked stature, Congress wasn't sure if BSP supremo Mayawati would approve of a Dalit leader like Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, was indispensable to the party.

Pratibha Patil benefited from a process of elimination and this Governor of Rajasthan emerged the most acceptable political face for the top Constitutional post in the country. Suddenly everybody was smiling there were no complaints. Even heavyweight male contenders accepted her nomination gracefully.

So, India is set to get its first woman President, but the question that was being debated on CNN-IBN's Face The Nation was: Is India ready for a woman President?

On the panel of experts to try and answer the question were National Commission for Women Chairperson, Dr Girija Vyas; IBN-Marathi Editor, Nikhil Wagle; Senior Journalist, Neerja Choudhary; and Political Scientist, Aswini K Ray.

The initial poll results on the show indicated that 48 per cent of the people were saying India is ready for a woman President, while 52 per cent disagreed saying India needed some more time to mature and accept a woman at the top post.

Pratibha Patil, a Second Thought?

Though history may be about to be written, with India getting its first woman president, it seems as if Pratibha Patil was a backup choice, a second thought for the UPA.

Girija Vyas disagreed with this saying that though India has had to wait for a long time to get a woman President, the women of the country are happy that they are finally getting their place in the sun.

Neerja Choudhary agreed with Dr Vyas saying that she was very happy with the choice. However, she added that Patil's choice was like a googly that had been thrown by the UPA to try and wriggle out of a very tough situation. "It is like Dr Kalam's candidature which came at the last minute. Pratibha Patil is certainly a second choice, but something that all the allies of the Congress, including the Left, found difficult to go against."

She added that Pratibha Patil was a politically expedient, a politically great choice.

CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief, Rajdeep Sardesai said that there were three reasons why Pratibha Patil was being made the President of India: first that she is a woman, second being that she was from Maharashtra - which has never had a President, a Vice President or a Prime Minister, and thirdly because she is married to a Shekhawati, and would be now able to take on NDA's choice for the President's post, Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.