'UPA-Left has clear edge on NDA for Prez race'

New Delhi, May 12: The CPI(M) today asserted that the UPA-Left combine now has a ''clear edge'' in the race for the Presidential polls with the BSP winning a majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly adding that its candidate might not necessarily be a Dalit.

''With the BSP getting a clear majority in UP, decks for have been cleared for a UPA-Left candidate. Now we have a clear edge over any probable NDA candidate for the Presidential polls,'' CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury told mediapersons.

Releasing special issues of party's English and Hindi weeklies- 'People's Democracy' and 'Lok Lehar' to commemorate the 150th anniversary of 1857 revolt at a function at party headquarters A K Goplan Bhawan, Mr Yechury said the arithmetic of the electoral college which elects the President is such that the UPA-Left candidate was sure to win.

''We hope that the BSP and the SP will also support the efforts to choose the next President through consensus. They would also like to be part of the excercise to elect a President who has impecable secular credentials," said Mr Yechury, who is also the editor of the party's English daily.

Mr Yechury came out with figures to buttress his claim saying that the UPA- Left combine needed 5,49,442 votes to ensure its nominee's victory, the Congress had 2,80,000 while the share of its allies is 1,14,647 and the Left commanded 1,10,988 votes. Besides, the SP has as many as 59,023 votes.

Even the other regional parties would like to be associated with such an excercise, he added.

The Left, which would support Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde for the Presidential post, made it clear that the BSP's stunning victory, did not mean that its leader Ms Mayawati would support a Dalit President.

"During the UP poll campaign she too gave the slogan- ''Haathi nahi Ganesh hai, Brahma Vishnu Mahesh hai,''( This(the BSP poll symbol) is not the elephant but the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh,'' the CPI(M) leader said adding that the formal discussions to choose a consensus candidate had already started.

He, however, chose to keep the Left parties' cards close to his chest on itschoice for the Presidential candidate or the likely UPA-Left candidate insisting that the name would be found out through consensus.

Answering a specific query whether the candidate could be beyond the circulatd names- Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde or Dr Karan Singh, he said, ''Yes, it could be.'' To a query whether the Left would support the Congress candidate, he said in the past also the party had supported the Congress nominees- Mr Shankar Dayal Sharma and Mr K R Narayanan, but hastingly added that the question was not of ''a particular candidate or any particular party.''

UNI

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