M A I N   N E W S

NDA backs third front’s call for Kalam
Shekhawat to remain NDA choice if election takes place, says Sushma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 19
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) today came out in support of the UNPA's proposal of a second term for President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam favouring an all-party consensus on the issue and made it clear that Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat would contest as an independent if election takes place.

Responding to a volley of questions on the Opposition alliance's reaction if there was no consensus on Kalam, NDA spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said “then Shekhawatji would be the NDA candidate” and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to take the country into confidence about their reservations on not giving a second term to the incumbent President.

He (Shekhawat) has paved the way for building a consensus on Kalam. The ball is now in the Congress' court, Swaraj said denying that the Vice-President's statement implied he could withdraw from the race in the event of an election.

The BJP leader claimed that the President himself had asked the NDA two months ago not to take any initiative for building a consensus on his name.

She said Kalam wanted that the Congress and the Left should rather make such a move first. In the absence of a consensus, Shekhawat will remain NDA-backed candidate. He is not nervous. He was, is and will remain in the fray, Swaraj asserted.

At the same time, she said the NDA would act in accordance with the wishes of Shekhawat, who she pointed out was an independent candidate unlike UPA candidate Pratibha Patil.

She described Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's appeal to alliance leaders to support UPA-Left presidential candidate as a sign of desperation and termed Shekhawat's last night statement a sign of statesmanship.

No going back on Patil, says Cong

New Delhi, June 19
Apparently satisfied over the lack of unanimity among Opposition parties on the choice of the presidential candidate, the Congress today set in motion the process of filing nomination of UPA candidate Pratibha Devisingh Patil with party president Sonia Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh signing her nomination form as proposers.

Parliamentary affairs minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi flew to Chennai to get signatures of Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi as a main proposer. He is expected to go to Lucknow tomorrow to get signatures of UP CM Mayawati.

Dismissing posers from the BJP on a possible consensus on Kalam, Congress leaders said that there was no going back on the candidature of Patil. Terming UNPA as the BJP’s “second front”, Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said it had dragged the President into an unnecessary controversy.

Referring to V-P Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s statement in which he said he would be happy if consensus could be reached on Kalam, Natarajan said it seemed the leader was looking for “an honourable exit.” — TNS