Pranab fails to get Mulayam’s nod for president

New Delhi The Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav Monday refused to endorse federal finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for the president’s post.

Yadav said his commitment to the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was confined to keep communal forces out of power and that his party was not part of the UPA.

“The presidential elections have not been announced yet. There are no candidates. We will decide on whom to support after considering merits and de-merits (of candidates),” Yadav said, adding that he was not aware if the Congress party had nominated Mukherjee to run for the President’s post.

Presidential elections are due next month. V.S. Sampath, who took over as the new Chief Election Commissioner yesterday, said that the Election Commission would soon announce the schedule for the presidential elections.

Yadav was categorical that the next president must have political background, virtually ruling out support to any bureaucrat. He, however, did not comment on Mukherjee’s merit for the post saying he was not aware if the Congress party had officially nominated him for the post.

Samajwadi Party’s support is crucial for the Congress party-led UPA to ensure its nominee gets elected as the new president as it lacks majority in the Electoral College.

Mukherjee is being seen as the front runner to replace Pratibha Patil as the new president. Patil is slated to retire on July 25.

While the Samajwadi Party may ultimately agree to support the UPA nominee, Trinamool Congress, which is the second largest constituent of the UPA, continues to play hard in committing its support.

While the Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee, who is also the West Bengal chief minister, is maintaining distance from UPA leaders, she sent her finance minister Amit Mitra called on Mukherjee yesterday to press for moratorium on interest on loans taken by the state. Banerjee had last month called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the same demand, saying she inherited an empty coffer from the Left Front government in the state last year.

She has linked her support to the UPA nominee as the new president to her demand for either interest moratorium or special economic bailout package.