New Delhi, June 14 (ANI): As the opposition parties continue to take potshots at the ruling Congress Party over the delay in announcing the name for the next President of India, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on Thursday categorically denied that the UPA has botched up the process, and emphasized that the consultations will go on till a broader consensus is arrived at on the presidential candidate.
"I don't concede that the UPA has botched up. Very categorically, a decision was taken by the Congress Party, which leads the UPA alliance, empowering and authorizing chairperson Sonia Gandhi to discuss and evolve consensus as far as possible on a name for the president's election. And Mrs. Gandhi has had two or even more round of talks with the alliance partners and leaders of smaller political groups and parties," said Soni.
"Consultations are an ongoing process. When she has been empowered by the entire UPA alliance then she has to discuss whether it takes two rounds or three rounds or as long as she thinks and deems it necessary. She will discuss as long as she feels it's important and necessary to have a single name with the maximum support emerge as our candidate for the Rashtrapati," she added, when asked to comment on the consultations still taking place.
Soni said UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had revealed the two names that had cropped up following her discussions with the other political parties to Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee during the meeting yesterday.
"And yesterday, she also had a meeting with Mamata Banerjee, a senior alliance partner, and indicated to her the talks she has had, how much support two names which came up during her discussion with the other political parties," said Soni.
"I am told that Mamata Banerjee also mentioned two names, which she had probably been mentioning before except I think Somnath Chatterjee's name she mentioned on the spur of the moment or whatever," she added.
Soni also hit out at Mamata Banerjee for coming up with the name of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh as one of the choices fore the president's post.
"But for a senior political responsible leader to walk from serious discussions with the UPA chairperson to a press conference and disclosing three names, including that of the Prime Minister of India, it is something which doesn't make any political or ethical sense," said Soni.
"I have been looking back and so have my colleagues, never has there been an instance, where a sitting Prime Minister, his name is being bandied about like this. It's a constitutional post, he heads the Government of India. In fact, the people of our country would wonder why such tactics are being adopted by political parties," she added.
The Congress Party is holding parleys with its senior leaders in the wake of Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Samajwadi Party (SP) stunning the ruling party by proposing three names for the presidential candidate.
Banerjee and Mulayam Singh Yadav had on Wednesday evening announced the names of Manmohan Singh, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Somnath Chatterjee as their preferred choices for the July 19 presidential poll.
The Congress Party earlier in the day ruled out sparing Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for the presidential race, as it rejected the three names proposed by the two allies, sending signals that it was not in a mood to bow before them.
The latest developments appear to be a major blow for the ruling Congress Party, as both Mamata and Mulayam have rejected the names of Mukherjee and Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari.
Mamata, who met Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday, officially remains non-committal over the UPA chairperson's suggestion, saying she would revert on the issue after discussing it with her Trinamool Congress colleagues.
Trinamool Congress, with 19 members in the Lok Sabha, is the largest constituent of UPA after the Congress. On the other hand, the Samajwadi Party, which has 22 members in the Lok Sabha, is an outside supporter of the ruling alliance.
A fresh round of consultations on the issue of selection of a presidential nominee is taking place in the UPA, after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) authorised Gandhi to decide on the candidates for the coming presidential and vice presidential elections.
President Pratibha Devisingh Patil's term ends on July 24. (ANI)
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