Raisana Hill race heats political climate in Delhi; key meetings eyed

As the pressure builds up on the Congress party to decide its Presidential candidate, once again Trinamool Congress’ chief Mamata Banerjee will be meeting Congress’ outside supporter Samajwadi Party’s President Mulayam Singh Yadav this evening. The duo had, last evening, had recommended names of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee for President's post. However, the same were ruled out by the Congress party.

Mulayam Singh Yadav has convened meeting with Congress high command Sonia Gandhi post his meeting with Mamata Banerjee. Also, Congress party has convened the core members meet at 5.30 pm today. The UPA-II government will be meeting tomorrow to reach the consensus on the issue. However, Mamata Banerjee is unlikely to participate in the meet. Samajwadi Party possesses 6% of voting rights while Trinamool Congress has 4.37% votes.

On the other hand, the largest opposition party - BJP has targeted Congress over dilly-dally to decide the candidate. According to the BJP, there is no unity amongst the political parties in UPA-II and this reflects the paralysis. “The bond between the UPA parties is completely broken,” Shahnawaz Hussain, spokesperson for BJP says. “We thought when Pranab Mukherjee came out to speak after inflation numbers were announced he would talk about steps taken to tackle it but instead just announced the numbers. The UPA alliance is battling within itself and is not concerned with the plight of the country,” Hussain says.

Presently, Mulayam Singh Yadav is backing APJ Abdul Kalam as his preferred candidate for the post. Besides, Shiromani Akali Dal too has backed their support to former president APJ Abdul Kalam. The new president is expected to be incumbent in Rashtrapati Bhawan on July 22, 2012.