New Delhi: Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday strongly pitched for APJ Abdul Kalam for the post of President and indicated that in case no consensus emerges on his candidature there will be a contest. Even as Mamata insisted that Kalam was her first choice as well as that of Samajwadi Party for President, sources said Mulayam Singh Yadav will take a final view only after consulting his senior party colleagues on Friday.
9.20 pm: West Bengal Congress talks tough, says the UPA can survive without the Trinamool Congress and that it is up to Mamata Banerjee to decide when to leave the coalition.
9.13 pm: The Biju Janata Dal reiterates that former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma is their candidate for the presidential poll.
9.05 pm Sources suggest differences between Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav. According to sources, while Mamata makes her final choice for Kalam, Mulayam wants all three candidates named earlier. The Samajwadi Party chief is likely to clarify his stand before the media on Friday.
8.53 pm: Key UPA meeting on the Presidential poll, which was earlier scheduled to be held at 11 am, postponed to 4 pm on Friday.
8.43 pm: Almost an hour after meeting Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee's emissaries Kunal Ghosh and Ratan Mukherjee reach his residence with a letter from the Trinamool Congress chief.
7:38 PM: Mamata Banerjee-Mulayam Singh Yadav meeting over. Mamata Banerjee says APJ Abdul Kalam is their choice before leaving. Mulayam Singh Yadav refrains from making any statement. Mamata further says while her stand is intact, she does not want to comment about other parties.
Hitting out at the Congress, Mamata says the party has the prerogative to select or reject a candidate, adding that Kalam must contest and he will win.
7:35 PM: Congress may discuss names of Pranab, Meira Kumar and Ansari at UPA meet
7:30 PM:President poll: Congress to decide after UPA meet on Friday
7:08 PM: Will support the UPA candidate: All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi
7:07 PM: DMK will support UPA candidate. I have informed our decision to AK Antony: Karunanidhi
7:07 PM: I do not know about Kalam's name being proposed: DMK chief M Karunanidhi
7:05 PM: Congress is not serious on Pranab's candidature: SP's Ram Gopal Yadav
6.50 pm: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee sticks to her choice, saying former APJ Abdul Kalam is the number one choice. She says she has not threatened anyone and does not intend to topple the UPA government, however, adds that if the UPA wants her to leave, she will. Defending the names proposed by her along with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh, she says it is not a local election and the names recommended are of the stature of becoming the President.
6.15 pm Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi says Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is still an ally of the party.
5.35 pm Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav hits out at the Congress saying the party's approach to the presidential poll is wrong, it consulted smaller parties but not the bigger ones. He, however, says that the Samajwadi Party will talk to the Congress if it wants.
5:18 PM: Sonia Gandhi reaches 7 Race Course Road to meet Manmohan Singh.
5:00 PM: Sharad Pawar tells Sonia Gandhi that NCP would support any candidate put up by UPA.
4:41 PM: All CMs from Congress ruled states summoned to Delhi by party high command for a strategy meeting.
4:33 PM: I support Abdul Kalam as the candidate. Will be attending the NDA meeting tomorrow and hopefully Kalam will be the choice there: Subramanian Swamy.
4:30 PM: NCP leader Sharad Pawar meets Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
4:05 PM: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will boycott UPA meet on Friday, says she is ready to support APJ Abdul Kalam as the Presidential candidate.
4 PM: Trinamool Congress on Thursday said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did not break any decorum by making public the Congress's choices for the Presidential poll on Wednesday. TMC MP Kunal Ghosh said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi did give the consent to Mamata to share the meeting information in the public.
"Mamata has not broken any decorum. Sonia gave consent to Mamata when she asked if she can tell the reporters what happened in the meeting. She also informed Sonia that she will tell the two names. There is also no change in the stand of Samajwadi Party," Ghosh said.
3:40 PM: Congress core group meeting at 5:30 PM. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to meet Sonia Gandhi meet before Congress meet.
3:30 PM: UPA meeting at 11 AM on Friday. NDA, too, will meet on Friday
2:38 PM: Trinamool Congress chief and West bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has assured her that APJ Abdul Kalam remains his preferred candidate for the President's post and that he will not change his stand. Mamata Banerjee is also unlikely to attend the UPA meeting on Friday.
The Samajwadi Party will hold its parliamentary board meeting on Thursday evening, sources said. They also said that Mamata Banerjee will meet Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday evening.
2:35 PM: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday spoke to former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
2:17 PM: The Shiromani Akali Dal on Thursday said that they will support former president APJ Abdul Kalam's candidature for the President's post.
2:15 PM: Following her meeting with senior BJP leader LK Advani, AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday said that the entire exercise of selecting the candidate for the President's post has been botched by the Congress. She said there has not been any consensus on a candidate.
2:05 PM: Senior BJP leader LK Advani on Thursday discussed the Presidential race with AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Advani said that the UPA has not been able to create a consensus within its allies. The NDA will meet on Friday to take a stock of the situation, he said.
"Never before the President polls were so clumsy. I discussed the issue of Presidential election with Jayalalithaa. The NDA will meet on Friday to discuss the situation. All the names figured in the discussion with Jayalalithaa," he told reporters.
1:50 PM: Congress President Sonia Gandhi will meet NCP chief Sharad Pawar at 5 pm on Thursday to discuss the Presidential candidate.
1 PM: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that the UPA's Presidential candidate will be announced soon. "The UPA and Congress have set up a President candidate. Now that candidate will be announced shortly," Pranab said.
The Congress on Thursday took on the Trinamool Congress-Samajwadi Party combine and rejected their choices for the President's post which in a major embarrassment to UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi also included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In the first official reaction after the Mamata Banerjee-Mulayam Singh Yadav snub to the Congress's candidates, party spokesperson Janardhan Dwivedi said, "Manmohan Singh will remain the Prime Minister till 2014."
Dwivedi also said that the names of former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee and former President APJ Abdul Kalam proposed by Mamata and Mulayam were not acceptable to the Congress. He added that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari were the party's preferred choices and would continue to remain so.
Lashing out at Mamata, Dwivedi said, "Names come up during discussions and there is sanctity to close door talks. Mamata should not have announced the details of the meeting in public."
Mamata had met Sonia on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the possible candidates for the President and then told the media that Pranab Mukherjee and Hamid Ansari were the Congress candidates. Later on Wednesday evening she met Mulayam and put forward three names - Somnath Chatterjee, APJ Abdul Kalam and Manmohan Singh - while keeping quite on Pranab and Ansari. The inclusion of Manmohan’s name was seen a stinging indictment of the Congress-led UPA government.
The announcement by the TMC and Samajwadi Party chiefs stunned the Congress but now the party seems to be strategising to checkmate the Mamata-Mulayam duo by going in for Pranab Mukherjee's candidature for the President's post. Sonia Gandhi met Pranab on Thursday at her residence. She also met Defence Minister AK Antony, Home Minister P Chidambaram and DMK leader TR Baalu on Thursday.
Sources say that the Congress will name its candidate in within the next 24 hours. A Congress Core Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 5:30 pm.
The Congress sees the Mamata-Mulayam bonhomie as a way to create a political crisis where there can a mid-term Lok Sabha election within the next 12 months. While rejecting the Congress's choice for the President, the duo did manage to sent out a strong message to the Congress leadership that "don't take us for granted."
While the Congress may not agree on Pranab Mukherjee's candidature, the party may ask for another name for the President from Mamata and Mulayam. While the Congress will try to push for Pranab's name, there is a possibility also that in the next 24 hours a compromise is reached outside the five names - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former president APJ Abdul Kalam, and former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee - that have been doing the rounds.
Mulayam has reportedly no problem with Pranab's candidature but he wants to create a political situation where there could be an election for the post. Mamata has a personal problem with Pranab and she is determined not to allow him to become the President.
Moreover, if the Pranab's name is forced on Mamata, she is capable of walking out of the UPA.
As of now, Congress is playing a high risk game by pushing Pranab's name. The numbers at the movement are such that there is a slight edge to the UPA and Pranab is the kind of person who may attract floating voters as the Samajwadi Party is unlikely to oppose him.
The Congress is also counting that apart from Mulayam, Mamata and BJP, no one wants an election.
Here is a look at where the parties stand on Pranab and Kalam's candidature:
10, 98, 882: Total number of votes (5,49,408 of MPs and 5,49,474 of MLAs)
5,49,442: Minimum votes required for President to be elected
Support for Pranab
Congress + DMK + NCP + NC + RJD + RLD = 413558 votes (37.6 per cent)
Support for Kalam
BJP + AIADMK + BJD + TDP + SP + TMC = 462896 votes (42 per cent)
Magic Figure: 549442
Undecided parties
JDU + LEFT + BSP + Others = 222428 votes (20.4 per cent)
The big questions:
Is Mamata's exit from the UPA inevitable?
Will Mamata quit UPA is Sonia insists on Pranab?
Will Kalam fight Pranab in a contest?
Will SP break ranks with Mamata and back UPA candidate?
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