Search for Presidential nominee picks up steam

Karunanidhi meets Sonia, Pawar, Karat.

Serious efforts within the UPA camp to pick a Presidential nominee began today with DMK President K Karunanidhi meeting Sonia Gandhi and other alliance partners.

Karunanidhi told the media after his 15-minute meeting with Gandhi at 10 Janpath that they had discussed "some names" for the Presidential candidate. He, however, said that the picture would be clear only in the first week of June.

Sources said the names of Union ministers Arjun Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil and Sushil Kumar Shinde figured as the possible Presidential candidates during the Tamil Nadu chief minister's meeting with the UPA chairperson.

However, Arjun Singh denied he was in the reckoning for the top post. "I am not in the race. It is for the party to decide," he said.

Karunanidhi also met other leaders of the UPA "" NCP chief Sharad Pawar and CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat "" to discuss the issue.

The UPA partners are trying to forge unity among themselves on the Presidential candidate.

The CPI(M)'s categorical stand that the party would weigh the nominee's secular credentials has virtually ruled out a consensus on Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who is the only name being discussed so far in the BJP camp.

The BJP is obviously waiting for the UPA's decision before it reveals its strategy on the Presidential elections.

The UPA partners, sources said, appear to be in no mood to accommodate the BJP's demands in quest for forging a consensus on the Presidential poll.

"Numbers are clearly with us in case a contest becomes necessary," sources in the Congress said. The party is already calculating the support from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), after its chief Mayawati's cordial rounds of meetings with Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week.

The UPA's approach towards the Opposition is likely to be: "support our candidate if you want a consensus". But the Left parties have always opposed this consensus approach on Presidential elections. In 2002, the party had fielded Capt Laxmi Sehgal against Dr A P J Abdul Kalam for a symbolic contest.

Meanwhile, at an AICC briefing, Congress spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi did not rule out an apolitical person for the top job.