New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee are the three people favoured by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Trinamool Congress to be India's next president.
The surprise choices were announced at a joint press conference by SP's Mulayam Singh Yadav and Trinamool's Mamata Banerjee.
"We discussed three names ... A.P.J. AbdulKalam, Manmohan Singh and Somanth Chatterjee," Yadav told reporters.
He also appealed to all political parties to arrive at a consensus and support any one of the three.
"We decided the names based on the persons who are honest, know the constitution and can work for the nation. It will be good to have a president elected unanimously by all political parties," Banerjee said.
Both leaders denied having priority for any one of the candidates, saying it is for the political parties to support one of them.
When asked about Congress's choice of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee or Vice President Hamid Ansari, Banerjee said that was the Congress' choice and not theirs.
Before meeting Yadav, Banerjee had met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, where she was informed about party's choice of Mukherjee or Ansari.
--Indo-AsianNews Service
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