EC has the dates,Sonia the name

The announcement,made by new chief election commissioner V S Sampath,came this evening even as political parties intensified moves on the issue: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee,who heads the second largest party in the UPA,reached here following an invite from Congress president Sonia Gandhi for talks tomorrow.

At the same time,the NCP formally ruled out any possibility of deviating from the collective UPA strategy on the Presidential poll distancing itself from its senior leader PA Sangma,who has already thrown his hat into the ring with the support of BJD and AIADMK. Sources indicated that the UPA is likely to meet on the issue in the next few days.

The poll schedule now means that the UPA leadership will have an elbow room of about a week at the end of the month in the event that it is not able to announce the name of its nominee in the next four days. An impression that it could do so gained yesterday when,as reported by The Indian Express,finance minister Pranab Mukherjee — the hot favourite for the top job — suddenly called off a visit to Kabul on June 14 to attend a regional conference.

Since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will travel out of the country from June 16 to 23,UPA managers suggested that the decision could come sooner than later. Should the UPA hold its cards for some more time — since it will also have to talk to the Opposition and try for consensus on a single candidate — the process could well extend to the last week of June.

Banerjee,who told reporters that she had received a call from Sonia Gandhi to come for talks,asserted that the discussions were on the Presidential candidate of the UPA. “Sonia Gandhi telephoned me. Discussions will be held on the Presidential poll. We will talk tomorrow evening,” she said. She refused to comment when asked if she was agreeable to Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature should the Congress propose it. “That is a Congress matter. Let me see what she (Sonia Gandhi) says,” she said. She is expected to meet SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav tonight.

The NCP,on the other hand,seemed to implicitly support Mukherjee’s candidature with its contention that the next President will be a “seniormost” person who is acceptable to all. “India’s President will be acceptable to all. He will be a seniormost person,who will be congratulated by the entire country,” NCP General Secretary D P Tripathi told reporters here today.

The Opposition NDA,on its part,is yet to meet to devise a strategy though action was noted at their end too in the backdrop of a meeting that senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh had with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav this morning. The meeting triggered speculation that Singh was attempting to lobby for the post of vice-president though BJP leaders maintained that the NDA had not taken any view on the issue yet.