New Delhi, May 1
Left parties today threw broad hints that they would prefer to have Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee as the next President to pre-empt the BJP from installing its own nominee in Rashtrapati Bhavan in July.
As part of their avowed aim to prevent the BJP nominee from occupying Rashtrapati Bhavan in July, the Left parties gave indications that they would field Mr Chatterjee as the consensus candidate of the Left, the Congress, the SP and other regional parties.
“The Left will be happy if Mr Somnath Chatterjee is the consensus candidate,” CPI leaders A.B. Bardhan and Shamim Faizi said, adding that “the Left have to work in collaboration with the Congress-led UPA coalition after the UP polls are over.”
In a wide-ranging interview to UNI, Mr Bardhan and Mr Faizi recalled that the Samajwadi Party had already committed its support to Mr Chatterjee’s candidature for the country’s highest constitutional office.
Only yesterday CPM general secretary Prakash Karat not only ruled out his party’s withdrawing support to the Congress-led coalition at the Centre but also fired the first salvo against a second term for the incumbent President.
They also dwelt at length on the possibility of re-emergence of the Third Front comprising the SP, the AIADMK, and AGP among others, the crucial issue of their continuing support to the UPA government and other related issues.
— UNI
