Need to build consensus, say UPA allies

A surprise announcement by Mamata Banerjee and Mulayam Singh Yadav, proposing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s name for the President’s post, has flummoxed not only the Congress but other UPA allies as well. HT reports.

A surprise announcement by Mamata Banerjee and Mulayam Singh Yadav, proposing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s name for the President’s post, has flummoxed not only the Congress but other UPA allies as well.

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“We need to build consensus” was the general refrain among UPA allies after Banerjee and Yadav rejected the Congress choices of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and vice-president Hamid Ansari and proposed the names of Singh, former President APJ Abdul Kalam and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. “In the light of new developments, we will have to talk to everybody in UPA and try to bring a consensus,” NCP chief Sharad Pawar said.

DMK and NCP sources said they will wait for the Congress response and then take a call on the issue. Ajit Singh’s RLD, National Conference (NC) and Asaduddin Owasi too joined the consensus chorus.

Of the total 4,60,191 UPA votes, the NCP has 23,850, DMK 21,780, RLD 6,220 and NC 5,556. The total number of votes for presidential poll is 10,98,882, with MPs accounting for 5,49,408 votes and MLAs 5,49,474.