Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tonight stepped up efforts to drum up support for Hamid Ansari for a second tenure in the post of Vice President, elections to which are scheduled for August 7, as he spoke to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and CPI leader A B Bardhan.
Singh rang up Mamata but there was no official word on what transpired between the two leaders while CPI National Secretary D Raja said the Prime Minister spoke to Bardhan and his party colleague Sudhakar Reddy over phone seeking the Left party's support for Ansari for the Vice President's post.
Singh spoke to Mamata Banerjee, who was on a tour of North Bengal, after which TMC decided to attend a meeting convened by UPA in New Delhi on July 14 to decide on the Vice Presidential poll candidate.
"Prime Minister talked to Mamata Banerjee over phone," TMC Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh told PTI from North Bengal.
Banerjee has asked Railway Minister and her close aide Mukul Roy to attend the July 14 UPA meeting, he said.
"It will be after a long gap that Trinamool Congress will be attending a UPA meeting, which is a significant development," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"It will be after a long gap that Trinamool Congress will be attending a UPA meeting, which is a significant development," he said.
{{/usCountry}}Ghosh, however, said Trinamool Congress has not taken any decision on its stand on the presidential and the vice-presidential elections. "Whatever decision the party takes will be announced", he added.
Trinamool Congress had earlier said Banerjee would announce the party's decision on the presidential poll three days ahead of the election on July 19.
Raja said the CPI leaders conveyed to the Prime Minister that the party's central secretariat will meet here on July 18 and take a decision on the Vice Presidential elections.
Congress has been giving broad hints that Ansari is a frontrunner in the Vice Presidential race. His name appears to have the support of various other parties also. The last date for nomination for the Vice President election is July 20.
Congress is also hopeful of NDA ally JD-U's support for Ansari's candidature.