Chief minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa has convened a meeting of her party MPs and MLAs on July 18, a day before the Presidential poll.
All of them should attend the meeting being held under party presidium chairman E. Madhusudanan, she said in a statement on Thursday.
Though her statement did not specify the purpose of the meeting, it is expected that the modalities of the Prez poll would be discussed.
The AIADMK has 150 MLAs and 14 MPs. Ms Jayalalithaa, along with the BJD and the BJP, has announced support for former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma, who recently quit the NCP because the party refused to back his candidature.
NCP general secretary D.P. Tripathi told reporters in Delhi that the party would ask the BJP, AIADMK and BJD to withdraw support to Sangma because he “is not observing decency, decorum and dignity in the Presidential election”.
The NCP attack comes in response to Sangma saying that the Rashtrapati Bhavan was being used as dumping ground for the ‘failed’ finance minister (Pranab Mukherjee).
CPM wants non-congress personality for VP
CPM General secretary Prakash Karat said his party has requested the Prime Minister to promote a non-Congress candidate for the vice president’s post. Speaking to the media before attending the three-day state level CPM meeting that began Thursday in the city, Mr Karat said, “We have told the prime minister that we would like to have a person who doesn’t belong to the Congress party.
The candidate should be the right person having good stature and distinguished background. It’s up to them to decide.”
The Congress party has decided to seek a second term for current vice president Hamdi Ansari.
The comrades, however, prefer a person from outside the Congress and have conveyed their opinion unequivocally to the prime minister in a meeting in New Delhi.