Left yet to take a call on presidential polls: Biman Bose

The Left parties would take a decision on the presidential candidate after the "national picture" became clearer, West Bengal Left Front chief Biman Bose said in Kolkata on Thursday.

The Left parties would take a decision on the presidential candidate after the "national picture" became clearer, West Bengal Left Front chief Biman Bose said in Kolkata on Thursday.

Terming the names proposed by the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) for the presidential elections as based on "political calculations", Bose said: "The Left parties in New Delhi have not decided on this issue. They are ready to sit for discussions. After discussing the issue, they will announce their decision."

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"Let the national picture become more clear," said Bose, who is also a politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

Asked to comment on the name of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proposed by the Trinamool and the SP for the presidency, he said: "I will not comment on the names proposed by them. But I can say that these names are proposed according to political calculations and culture of the respective political parties."

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and SP's Mulayam Singh Yadav stunned the political world on Wednesday when they put forward their list of choices for the president -- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former president APJ Abdul Kalam and former speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Banerjee, who reached New Delhi on Tuesday night at the invitation of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, was the one who made the announcement that finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was the first choice of the Congress for the president's post followed by vice president Hamid Ansari.