UPA playing checkmate game on presidential choice: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said the Congress and its allies are playing "a game of checkmate" with the presidential elections and everything is part of a "pre-written script" by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday said the Congress and its allies are playing "a game of checkmate" with the presidential elections and everything is part of a "pre-written script" by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

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"It is a game of checkmate which Congress and its allies are playing. The whole thing is going as part of a pre-written script by Congress president Sonia Gandhi," BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters in New Delhi.

His comments came a day after finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and vice president Hamid Ansari were named as the Congress' first and second choice for the president's post.

Within an hour, both Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, both allies of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, announced a different set of names - former president APJ Abdul Kalam, former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - throwing the presidential race wide open.

Naqvi said that till today the ruling party has not come up with a final name for the presidential elections.

"We are keeping an eye (on the happenings).. We will wait for Congress to announce its candidate and then will come out with our choice," he said.

The presidential elections will be held July 19, if there is a contest. The last date of filing nominations is June 30.