Left parties for Presidential candidate with 'wide acceptance'

NEW DELHI: Refusing to spell out their preference, the Left parties on Wednesday asked the UPA government to come up with a candidate having “widest possible acceptance” for the Presidential election. After a meeting of the four Left parties here, the leaders said they did not discuss any names during the 90- minute-long deliberations though NCP leader P.A. Sangma approaching them for support was mentioned.


The leaders, in a statement, maintained that there should be a candidate for the Presidential election based on the “widest possible acceptance“.


The meeting was attended by CPI (M)’s Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and S.Ramachandran Pillai, CPI’s A.B. Bardhan, Sudhakar Reddy and D.Raja, RSP’s T.J. Chandrachoodan and Abani Roy and Forward Bloc’s Debabrata Biswas and G Devarajan.


“We have not discussed any name. UPA should come up with a name,” Biswas told reporters. When asked about Mamata Banerjee proposing three names including that of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Bardhan said many people are proposing many names. “Let’s see,” he said.


“She doesn’t have one name. She cannot choose one name. So she is proposing three names,” he added.


Queried whether parties like Samajwadi Party, RJD and BSP bailing out government will help the UPA in the Presidential elections; he said these parties were supporting the government on issues earlier also.


Bardhan also disapproved of the tendency of people to discuss about tribal candidate or other single qualification.


“We have to consider many things. If someone is saying he is tribal, so we should support him, then what about our ideology, our political thinking?” he said.


He also said the Left parties gave a patient hearing to Sangma but did not give any assurance to him.
“We will discuss the matter. We will soon decide. Let UPA come up with a name which has wider acceptability,” he said.