No formalities

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani was quite upset with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for not consulting the party before announcing Pranab Mukherjee’s name as the UPA’s Presidential nominee. When the PM called Advani a few minutes after announcing Mukherjee’s name to seek his support, Advani complained that the PM’s call five minutes after announcing the name was a mere formality. Interestingly, when the UPA decided to announce Vice-President Hamid Ansari’s name for a second term, the PM ensured he called up Advani before announcing the decision to the media. “This time, the PM called me five minutes before announcing the Ansari’s name, as I had told him he was only doing a formality by informing him about the Presidential candidate,” Advani said.