SP not to support Congress in Presidential poll

New Delhi, May 5: The Samajwadi Party, fighting a bitter political battle with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, today categorically rejected the idea of supporting the latter's candidate for the coming Presidential election.

''However, we would back a CPI(M) candidate,'' said SP general secretary Amar Singh while talking to reporters here.

He also made it clear that if the CPI(M) chose to support a Congress candidate, his party would not go with it. Only if Left parties put up their own candiadte, the SP would support them, he added.

''We are an independent party and not bound with what the CPI(M) does,'' said Mr Amar Singh.

The SP had a few months back said that it could support Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterji for Presidentship of the country.

The SP leader was also non-committal about a second term for Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. ''The party will take any decision on the issue after Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections,'' he said when asked about his party's views on a second term for the incumbent.

President APJ Abdul Kalam would be completing his five-year term in July.

Whether political parties would favour him for a second term and if not, then who would they support are topics of hot discussion in the capital's political circles.

UNI