No comment from Kalam on candidature

President APJ Abdul Kalam made no comment on Third Front's announcement that it will try to convince him to be their candidate for the presidential polls.

President APJ Abdul Kalam made no comment on the eight-party Third Front's announcement on Monday that it will try to convince him to be their candidate for the presidential polls.

HT Image

"We don't want to say anything on it," a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesman said.

"They (Third Front leaders) have sought an appointment with the president and it has been fixed for Wednesday evening," he told IANS.

At a meeting in Chennai, the Third Front decided to support Kalam for a second term.

"There is no other candidate who has the stature of Kalam," announced AIADMK chief and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha, after the two-hour meeting of the alliance leaders at her residence.

"We will appeal to all political parties to support Kalam as there is no other leader who is respected by all sections of society today," she said, calling the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) decision to field Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Patil as a "joke".

"Kalam's candidature needs to be supported, because we need to build the nation again and guide it away from fissiparous tendencies," she said.