By IANS
New Delhi : Former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalitha arrives in the capital Friday to strengthen her United National Progressive Alliance's (UNPA) efforts to mobilise support for a second term for President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
Jayalalitha, who was not part of the UNPA delegation that met Kalam Wednesday, will meet the president and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders in the capital.
The UNPA bid to garner support for Kalam was rebuffed by the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), which went ahead with former Rajasthan governor Pratibha Patil as its presidential candidate.
The Left and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have backed Patil, who will be filing her nomination papers Saturday.
Though Kalam has indicated to the UNPA that he would consider if there was a "certainty" that he would be re-elected, the move has attracted some scorn.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad have urged Kalam to "quit gracefully".
While the UPA-Left-BSP have a majority share of the votes, the NDA had thrown its weight behind Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. After the UNPA proposed Kalam's name, the BJP and some of its allies – but not the Shiv Sena – expressed their willingness to support him if there was "consensus" on his name.
The UPA-Left-BSP has 570,000 votes in the electoral college comprising MPs and MLAs who elect the president. The NDA has 354,689 votes and the Third Front 105,225.