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The Congress leadership is learnt to have decided to firmly back the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, for the President's post, braving the challenges put by key ally Trinamool Congress and supporter Samajwadi Party.
Apparently indicating that the Congress is in a mood to fight with its allies, Senior Congress leaders Mr Janardan Dwivedi and Ms Ambika Soni rebuffed the SP and the Trinamool for dragging the Prime Minister's name for the President's post.
“We cannot afford to spare Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. The other two names (Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Mr Somnath Chatterjee) are not acceptable,” Mr Dwivedi, also the chief spokesperson of the party, told reporters.
He said the party has already committed that Dr Singh will remain the Prime Minister till 2014. “Congress does not take such a step of changing its leader in between,” he added.
A meeting of the Congress group, however, has also decided to hold talks with the SP, Trinamool Congress and other “secular” parties expecting that they can come out of the crisis at a later stage. There are also indications that the SP may be offered the post of Vice-President for supporting Mr Mukherjee for the post.
An emissary of the Congress President has also met a senior CPI(M) leader here on Thursday. Mr Mukherjee has spoken with CPI(M) leaders Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Mr Biman Basu on the issue. The CPI(M), sources said, however, has not given any commitment to the Congress on the issue. The CPI also said formal talks are yet to happen on the issue.
Reiterating her stand on the issue, the West Bengal Chief Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, said the ball is in the court of the Congress. She said she and the SP supremo, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, will work together to find consensus on the candidature of the former President Mr Kalam.
“We will go according to our path,” she said and added that the Trinamool will not break away with the UPA. She said the SP and her party have given a clarion call and whoever supports or not supports them is not their problem.
The Opposition NDA and the UPA are meeting here on Friday to finalise the strategies.
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