By IANS
New Delhi : Leaders of regional parties who have formed the United New Progressive Alliance (UNPA) are slated to meet President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam here Wednesday afternoon to formally request him to stand for re-election.
Key leaders of the alliance, also called the Third Front, including Mulayam Singh Yadav, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Om Prakash Chautala, are meeting Kalam around 3.30 p.m. However, former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa is not part of the delegation, political sources said.
Alliance leaders had Monday appealed to all political parties, including the constituents of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), to nominate the incumbent president as a consensus candidate, saying he enjoyed overriding support of the people of the country.
But UPA has already begun the process of filing the nomination papers of its candidate, Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Patil, and made it clear that there was no going back on the choice. The Left parties are also supporting Patil.
Another contender is Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the National Democratic Alliance backed candidate who has said that he would step down from the race if consensus emerges for Kalam.