Mamata stands firm for Kalam
15 Jun 2012 2:42 AM GMT
In keeping with the prevailing weather conditions, political tempers too rose in the national capital on Thursday with the Congress rejecting the names proposed by Mamata Banerjee and Mulayam Singh Yadav as the next occupant of the Rashtrapati Bhawan and Banerjee sticking to her guns. The Congress president Sonia Gandhi held two rounds of meetings with party leaders during the day and sources claim that the party will place names of the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari before the members of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which is re-scheduled to meet at 4 pm on Friday. Â
It is being closely watched if the West Bengal chief minister will agree to join the deliberations or send an emissary for the meeting. Not the one to be bogged down by the senior partner, the Trinamool boss countered the Congress move in the evening and reiterated that the former president A P J Abdul Kalam was her choice and also dared the Congress to pick the gauntlet and expel her from the UPA. Banerjee is scheduled to return to Kolkata only late on Friday afternoon. She also insisted that narrowing down the choice to Kalam had the backing of the Samajwadi Party too, though she was not joined by either Yadav or any of his colleagues when she addressed mediapersons after her meeting with the Uttar Pradesh strongman.
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With the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners too scheduled to meet on Friday at the residence of the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani, the name of the former president is all set to be discussed as the NDA's possible choice too. In the case of Banerjee and Yadav joining hands with the NDA, Kalam's chances become strong with the NDA along with M-M combine likely to garner 4,17,398 votes in the electoral college. On the other hand, the UPA numbers with Banerjee's exit will come down to 4,13,558 votes. Enthused by the day's development, an excited Banerjee announced to mediapersons that Kalam was the winning candidate.
Kalam's position could be further strengthened if Advani, who held discussions with the Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha on Thursday, manages to rope in the AIADMK in support of Kalam. Since Kalam is a Tamilian, the likelihood of Jayalalithaa supporting him is high, though, as of now, she, along with her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, is committed to support the former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Sangma's candidature. The AIADMK and the Biju Janata Dal together have 76,427 votes, which could take the tally of those supporting Kalam to 4,94,825 votes.
However, the situation could still be saved for the UPA if the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Left parties back their candidate. Mukerjee, on Thursday, opened dialogue with the former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Left Front chairperson Biman Bose. On the phone call Mukherjee made, Mamata Banerjee said, 'Everybody is free to make phone calls. We would also make phone calls at the appropriate time.'
It is being closely watched if the West Bengal chief minister will agree to join the deliberations or send an emissary for the meeting. Not the one to be bogged down by the senior partner, the Trinamool boss countered the Congress move in the evening and reiterated that the former president A P J Abdul Kalam was her choice and also dared the Congress to pick the gauntlet and expel her from the UPA. Banerjee is scheduled to return to Kolkata only late on Friday afternoon. She also insisted that narrowing down the choice to Kalam had the backing of the Samajwadi Party too, though she was not joined by either Yadav or any of his colleagues when she addressed mediapersons after her meeting with the Uttar Pradesh strongman.
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With the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners too scheduled to meet on Friday at the residence of the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani, the name of the former president is all set to be discussed as the NDA's possible choice too. In the case of Banerjee and Yadav joining hands with the NDA, Kalam's chances become strong with the NDA along with M-M combine likely to garner 4,17,398 votes in the electoral college. On the other hand, the UPA numbers with Banerjee's exit will come down to 4,13,558 votes. Enthused by the day's development, an excited Banerjee announced to mediapersons that Kalam was the winning candidate.
Kalam's position could be further strengthened if Advani, who held discussions with the Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha on Thursday, manages to rope in the AIADMK in support of Kalam. Since Kalam is a Tamilian, the likelihood of Jayalalithaa supporting him is high, though, as of now, she, along with her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, is committed to support the former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Sangma's candidature. The AIADMK and the Biju Janata Dal together have 76,427 votes, which could take the tally of those supporting Kalam to 4,94,825 votes.
However, the situation could still be saved for the UPA if the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Left parties back their candidate. Mukerjee, on Thursday, opened dialogue with the former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Left Front chairperson Biman Bose. On the phone call Mukherjee made, Mamata Banerjee said, 'Everybody is free to make phone calls. We would also make phone calls at the appropriate time.'
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