NEW DELHI (AP) -- India's governing coalition picked its candidate Thursday for next month's presidential elections, setting the ground for the country's first woman president.

Pratibha Patil, 72 and currently the governor of northwestern state of Rajasthan, is the candidate of Congress party and its allies for the post of president, said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, ending weeks of speculation in the media.

The post of Indian president is largely ceremonial, but is vested with powers that can be significant in times of political crisis. The president is also the supreme commander of the armed forces.

Patil's choice surprised and disappointed many political observers, because she lacks national stature and is not known much outside her home state Maharashtra.

She was a lawyer before joined politics and became a member of the state legislature in 1962. She was appointed a minister several times in the state government between 1962 and 1985. In the following decade, she served as a member of Indian Parliament.

Gandhi announced Patil's name after weeks of consultations with coalition partners, who reportedly opposed the names of other better known candidates that Congress had initially proposed.

"It is an indication of the Congress party's inability to exercise any judgment of its own in the face of the opinion of its allies," said Pran Chopra, a New Delhi-based political analyst.

Choosing a presidential candidate is also a symbolic gesture by political parties seeking to display their secular and progressive credentials.

Hindu-majority India has had three Muslim presidents, including the incumbent A.P.J Abdul Kalam, since winning independence from Britain in 1947. It has also had a president from the minority Sikh community. Kalam's predecessor came from the bottom of the caste hierarchy.

But the country hasn't had a woman president yet.

"It will send a right signal," said M. Karunanidhi, leader of the regional DMK party who is believed to have pushed for Patil's nomination. DMK is a key ally of the Congress party.

The president is elected by lawmakers in the Indian parliament and members of state legislatures.

The Congress party and its allies have enough lawmakers and state legislators to get their candidate elected to the post.

Because the president is expected to uphold the constitution and show no bias to any political group, parties often try to forge a consensus on the candidate. The current president, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, was a consensus candidate.

This time though, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said it would have its own candidate and picked the serving vice president, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, for the post.

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