The Left parties have asked the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to come up with a presidential candidate having the “widest possible acceptance.”
Emerging from a meeting here on Wednesday, leaders of the four Left parties said they didn't discuss any name, though P.A. Sangma of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), who had approached them for support, did figure in the deliberations.
A statement issued later said: “There should be a candidate for the presidential election, based on the widest possible acceptance.”
“We haven't discussed any name. The UPA should come up with a name,” Debabrata Biswas of the Forward Bloc told journalists after the meeting, and also remained non-committal on the three names proposed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, including that of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
The meeting was attended by Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, and S. Ramachandran Pillai, (Communist Party of India-Marxist), A.B. Bardhan, Sudhakar Reddy, and D. Raja (Communist Party of India), T.J. Chandrachoodan and Abani Roy (Revolutionary Socialist Party) and the Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas and G. Devarajan.
“We have to consider many things,” Mr. Bardhan said. “If someone is saying he is tribal, so we should support him, then what about our ideology, our political thinking?” he said in an obvious reference to Mr. Sangma.
He said the Left parties gave a patient hearing to Mr. Sangma, but didn't give any assurance to him. “We will discuss the matter. We will soon decide. Let the UPA come up with a name which has wider acceptability,” he said.
Meanwhile, the former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, has opposed the candidature of Mr. Sangma for the presidential election, alleging that he was “playing into the hands of communal forces” represented by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“One shouldn't declare himself a presidential candidate. It has never been demanded by any individual. The country chooses and the electoral colleges decide it. But Sangma is trying to claim it as a tribal leader, which is wrong,” Mr. Jogi said.
Asked on his stand on supporting a tribal candidate, Mr. Jogi said the party had not decided yet. “If a party decides on a tribal candidate, we will definitely support it.”
