The CPI (M) on Sunday asked the Congress to formally announce its Presidential nominee and said it will decide its stand on the top post only after that.
The party’s Polit Bureau at its meeting in New Delhi discussed the feedback received during its discussions with leaders like SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
The four Left parties had also met on Friday with their leaders favouring a consensus candidate for the President’s post.
CPI (M) sources said the Congress should first announce its nominee and a decision would be taken only after that.
Sunday’s Polit Bureau meeting, which came after the Kozhikhode party congress last month, also took stock of party’s organisational matters and decided work distribution among the top leadership.
Senior CPI (M) leaders M.A. Baby, Surjakanta Mishra and A. K. Padmanabhan, the new faces in the Polit Bureau, also attended the meeting. Former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was absent on health grounds.
The CPI (M) leadership is also understood to have decided to keenly watch the meeting between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Kolkata on Monday.
After the meeting, Biman Basu, who is also the West Bengal Left Front Chairman expressed surprise over reports that Ms. Clinton would be discussing issues like Teesta river water sharing and FDI in retail with Ms. Banerjee.
Mr. Basu told reporters the Teesta issue is a bilateral matter between India and Bangladesh, while FDI in retail is a purely internal matter of India. There can be no outside interference in these matters, he said.
“The U.S. must not interfere in internal matters. CMs must speak to PM. U.S. interference can’t be tolerated,” he added.
