Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi on Thursday rejected the names of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, suggested by Ms Banerjee and Mr Mulayam Singh as candidates for President.
Making it clear that it cannot spare Dr Manmohan Singh and that he would continue to be PM till 2014, the Congress rejected the names of Dr Kalam and Mr Chatterjee outright. Mr Dwivedi disapproved of Ms Banerjee disclosing the names of Mr Mukherjee and Dr Ansari as the first and second choices of the Congress. He said the process of consultation was still on and Mrs Gandhi had not finalised any name. Mrs Gandhi is in the process of consulting even single-member parties and in the course of it two names have come up. “If Congress had decided on the name, two names would not have come up,” he said. “There is a dignity to the process. When such talks are held, names are not discussed outside,” he added.
Senior Congress minister Ambika Soni targeted Ms Banerjee directly, stating that the CM’s behaviour “doesn’t make political or ethical sense”. “Never has there been an instance where the name of a sitting PM is bandied about like this,” she said. “It is a constitutional post, he heads the government and the country, and one desists from such lack of courtesy... People of our country would wonder why such tactics are being adopted by political parties,” Ms Soni told reporters.
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury was critical of the way the names had led to speculation. “It is neither good for the nation nor for our polity to speculate on these names... It is not good for those also whose names have been floated in the speculation market,” he said.
SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav attacked the Congress, accusing it of not dealing with Mr Mulayam Singh’s party in an appropriate manner while holding consultations on the election. Mr Yadav said the Congress called “two-MP” parties for consultations on the issue but “did not treat the SP the way it should have”. “Responsibility for maintaining relations lies with the major partner. If there is something wrong, Congress should be held responsible,” he said.
The Congress appeared to be zeroing in on the candidature of Mr Mukherjee on Thursday night. The party core group, headed by Mrs Gandhi, met at Dr Singh’s residence and is believed to have decided to put forward Mr Mukherjee’s name at Friday’s UPA meeting. “No dark horse” is under consideration in the Congress-UPA camp, remarked a leader. The UPA meeting is expected to formally endorse the name of Mr Mukherjee as the alliance candidate.
The CPI said it favoured a dalit woman as the next President, a remark widely interpreted as the party batting for LS Speaker Meira Kumar. Former CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan parried questions on whether the Left parties would back Mr Mukherjee. “Mahatma Gandhi has said one good thing... among many other good things, that a dalit woman should be made President,” he said.
told reporters, adding, “Sorry, I am not taking any names.”
Asked whether the Left could afford not to support Mr Mukherjee, he said he should not be asked such questions. “We will wait and watch. The Left parties are meeting here on June 21 to firm up strategy,” he said. Mr Bardhan said only four leaders — NCP chief Sharad Pawar, BJD leader Naveen Patnaik, AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa and TDP president Chandrababu Naidu — had spoken to him. Barring the four leaders.