The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday indicated its support to the UPA candidate for President provided he is not a bureaucrat.
“One condition, he should not be a bureaucrat,” SP supremo Mulayam Singh told reporters here, when asked whether the party would support a Congress candidate.
Mr. Singh replied in the negative to another query whether his party would join the UPA government.
At the UPA-II 3rd anniversary function, outside supporters Mr. Singh and RJD leader Lalu Prasad were seated on the podium along with senior Ministers and leaders of parties which have representatives in the Cabinet.
Congress managers, however, explained it saying since the leaders were early to arrive at the function, it would have been inappropriate to make them sit among the audience. “Nothing more should be read into that,” they said.
At the dinner, Mr. Singh and Mr. Prasad shared the table with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Trinamool Congress' Saugata Roy, DMK leader T.R. Baalu and Congress veteran Karan Singh.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, Lok Jan Shakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan and Minister of State K.C. Venugopal shared the table with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
