PMO invites Mamata Banerjee to reach consensus on President Candidate

As the government nears the deadline to decide the President, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to meet the supremo of its largest ally Trinamool Congress - Mamata Banerjee. The Prime Minister office has called this West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee citing that Singh would like to discuss the issue with her. Prior to this, Mamata Banerjee will be meeting the Congress high command - Sonia Gandhi to discuss the same issue, as the pressure is mounting on the party to decide the candidate.

Mamata Banerjee, who is presently in capital, met the Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav yesterday. However, the Congress’ allies have not disclosed their preferred candidate and will be supporting the candidate only when the ruling party declares the name. Samajwadi Party possesses 6% of voting rights while Trinamool Congress has 4.37% votes.

'The government which is sitting in Delhi is a government of give and take. The Congress and UPA should decide very soon whom they are going to nominate for President,' said Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar. So far, Finance Minister - Pranab Mukherjee is the frontrunner in the race.

The new president is expected to be incumbent in Rashtrapati Bhawan on July 22, 2012.