Presidential polls: Mamata to skip UPA meeting, says Kalam is her candidate

New Delhi - 14 June 2012 (PTI): Unfazed by Congress rejection of her three candidates, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today said former President A P J Abdul Kalam is her nominee for the Presidential poll.

"We are for Kalam," Banerjee told PTI when asked whether she would support Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee or Vice President Hamid Ansari, believed to be the two first and the second choices of the Congress.

Her party MP Kunal Ghosh went a step further, saying if Congress fields Mukherjee or Ansari, Trinamool will "contest" the election with Kalam as its nominee. "I can visualise a contest if Congress goes ahead with the names of Pranab Mukherjee or Hamid Ansari...If Congress names either Pranab Mukherjee or Ansari, then TMC will contest... Trinamool Congress or Samajwadi Party then may go with A P J Abdul Kalam," he said.

Trinamool Congress, which has teamed up with Samajwadi Party, floated the names of Kalam, along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee yesterday as a counter to UPA's nominee.

Congress today rejected their candidature.
At the same time, Mamata made it clear that she would not quit the UPA of her own or topple the government, Ghosh said. He claimed that Mamata had not breached any trust by disclosing the names of Mukherjee and Ansari discussed with her by Sonia Gandhi yesterday, saying that it was done with the "consent" and "permission" of the Congress chief. "Yesterday Mamata had gone to meet Sonia Gandhi to discuss Presidential candidate and after the discussion Mamata asked Sonia whether she could disclose (names) to media standing outside.... And Sonia gave her the consent. That is what exactly she did," Ghosh said.

He went on to claim that Mamata "took permission" of Gandhi on disclosing the names discussed at their meeting.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress chief she would not attend Friday's UPA meeting on deciding a presidential candidate. "I am not here (tomorrow Friday) as I had said that I will wait for 26 hours and I am returning after meeting (Samajwadi Party chief)Mulayam Singh (Yadav)," she told reporters ahead of the meeting.