By IANS
New Delhi : The race for Rasthrapati Bhavan heated up Tuesday with the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) winning the crucial support of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati for its candidate, widely tipped to be Home Minister Shivraj Patil, even as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) held a series of meetings to decide its strategy.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP chief Mayawati gave a blank cheque to the Congress, saying there was a "general consensus" on who would be India's next president following UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's dinner with her Monday.
Speaking at a press conference, Mayawati declared that there was no question of supporting an NDA candidate because it was a "communal" front. She left it to Sonia Gandhi to make the announcement.
In another development, the newly-floated eight-party Third Front denied favouring Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat for the top post with AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha saying "no decision was taken with regard to the front's stand on the presidential election".
Speaking in Chennai, she denied reports that she and members of the Third Front had decided to support Shekhawat as an independent candidate. She also denied that she had spoken to the chief ministers of Bihar, Assam and Orissa or had been in touch with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on this issue.
In the capital, NDA leaders had an informal round of meeting at the residence of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to discuss the strategy to be chalked out Wednesday.
Shekhawat too had a meeting with Vajpayee, apparently to secure the support of NDA for himself, though Bharatiya Janata Party leaders said that they could back him as an independent.
"We are in favour of a consensus candidate which has been our line from the beginning and that is why we have not decided on any name. Let them (UPA) come out and tell us who they are fielding," Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav told IANS after the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Left appeared to be mounting pressure on the UPA to change its choice, which appears to be zeroing in on Shivraj Patil.
After a meeting of four leftist parties here, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat said: "There is no change in the Left stand over the criteria" they had put forward for the presidential candidate.
The Left says any president of India should have impeccable secular credentials.
Karat said the Congress had thus far not put out any name as the presidential candidate. He said the Left would take a final decision after discussions with DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi here Wednesday.
Karunanidhi would also be meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi to discuss the presidential candidate of the UPA.
However, sources in the Left said that if the UPA allies and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) form a consensus over Patil's name, the communists would be "forced" to support him.
The Congress-led multi-party UPA, the Left and BSP together claim a total of 573,159 votes to NDA's 354,689. The so-called Third Front commands 106,281 votes.