In the early 1990s, when TN Seshan as Chief Election Commissioner was the flavour of the season, a packed Rotary club meeting in Mumbai asked him to stand for elections. Seshan, always ready to throw a counter-punch, asked: “I will stand, but how many of you will support me?”. Every hand was raised in a show of solidarity. On retiring as CEC, Seshan contested a presidential election as a Shiv Sena-supported candidate in 1997 and lost miserably.