NEW DELHI, June 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Confirming his candidacy as a "politically correct choice," the opposition Congress party threw its weight Thursday, June 13, behind Muslim presidential candidate Abdul Kalam, the architect of the country's ballistic missile program, ensuring he will become India's next president.

"The Congress party, after extensive consultations, has decided to support the candidature of Abdul Kalam for the highest office of president of India," Congress party spokesman S. Jaipal Reddy told reporters in New Delhi, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The incumbent, Kocheril Raman Narayanan, is due to complete his five-year term on July 24.

Kalam was named a candidate Monday, June 10, by India's ruling coalition led by the Hindu nationalist BJP party, after hectic negotiations between the government and the opposition failed to arrive at a consensus candidate.

The Congress party's announcement ensures that Kalam will succeed Narayanan, though his candidature is opposed by India's Communist parties.

India has a special electoral college that votes for the president, which includes members of state legislative assemblies and the lower house of parliament.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee proposed Monday, June 10, that Abdul Kalam be the nation's new president.

Television channel NDTV News reported Vajpayee met opposition leader Sonia Gandhi to seek her Congress Party's support for Kalam's nomination.

"During the meeting, Vajpayee said the government had made up its mind to field noted scientist Abdul Kalam for the country's top post," NDTV News said, AFP reported.

Gandhi reportedly told Vajpayee that she would "hold consultations with her senior colleagues" before deciding to back Kalam or put forward her own candidate.

Vajpayee's new nomination follows the Congress Party firmly rejecting the BJP's earlier choices of Maharashtra state governor P.C Alexander and current vice president Krishna Kant, saying it would nominate its own candidate instead -- incumbent president K.R Narayanan.

The BJP is opposed to the idea of giving Narayanan a second term.

After her meeting with Vajpayee, Gandhi told reporters that her party had been given a new name and "was mulling over the choice".

Kalam is seen as a "politically correct choice" as he belongs to the minority Muslim community and could help heal recent high tensions with the majority Hindus in the Western state of Gujarat.

Gujarat, ruled by the Hindu nationalist BJP party, witnessed India's worst Hindu-Muslim clashes in a decade this year, with more than 1,000 people murdered, mostly Muslims.

"Missile Man" Kalam, who started his life selling newspapers, has worked in India's key defense and space centers for the past 43 years. He retired in November last year.

From 1983 until his retirement, Kalam headed India's ambitious Integrated Guided Missile Development Program to develop an array of weapons, including short, medium and ballistic missiles.

India conducted a string of nuclear blasts in May 1998 and said the tests included a thermo-nuclear device and nuclear weapons meant for the battlefield.

Pakistan conducted rival tests in 1998, prompting the United States to impose a raft of nuclear sanctions on the two South Asian adversaries, who have fought three wars since 1947. Most of the sanctions were lifted in September.