Cong’s failure to name prez successor irks allies, Left

NEW DELHI: With the Congress reluctant to name its candidate in the coming presidential polls, there was little forward movement in the negotiations on the issue within the ruling UPA.

Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi attempted to engage various components of the alliance as well as the Congress in talks on the polls. But with the Congress refusing to name its nominee, the meetings that the TN chief minister had with the allies remained sessions to reiterate their backing for a ‘secular’ and ‘politically experienced’ candidate.

Although the Left had announced its preference for external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, the Congress leadership has made ‘loyalty’ the chief criterion in the selection process. Incidentally, many of Mr Mukherjee’s colleagues such as Shivraj Patil and Sushil Kumar Shinde, fare well on this particular count.

The aprrehension that the allies may not be equally enthused over the candidature of a blue blooded loyalist appears to be restraining the Congress from naming its candidate thus far. The Left gave vent to their irritation in their interaction with reporters when they said that the Congress should put out its preference.

On its part, the Congress may use the vice-president’s post as a bargaining chip to secure the consent of the UPA allies. The current negiotiations is aimed at getting a feel of the thinking among the allies. Mayawati, who has indicated the BSP’s support for the Congress nominee, is learnt to be keen on the vice president’s post of a BSP leader. The components of the UPA, who wield similar numerical clout, may also be nursing such ambitions.

As the negotiations drew to a close this evening, there was acknowledgment that the issue may take a little longer to play itself out. Mr Karunanidhi, who met Congress president, PM, Sharad Pawar, Prakash Karat and AB Bardhan during the day, said he would be back in the Capital in the first week of June for further discussions.

Meanwhile, the Congress kept up the suspense by saying that it was okay with either a political or non-political person. Asked by media persons if the party had zeroed-down on any criteria, as the CPM as done, to determine who the next president should be, Congress spokesperson Satyavrat Chaturvedi said: “The president should be a highly experienced person of secular credentials”.

The Congress, however, parried questions on whether or not it wants a politically-experienced person to be the next president. On whether he meant “politically-experienced” by using the words “a highly experienced person”, Mr Chaturvedi replied in the affirmative. However, when asked if the next president could be from a non-political background, he said: “We will consider a political person but a non-political person is also not ruled out”.