'UPA must formally approach Mayawati for support'

New Delhi, May 21: The CPI today asked the Congress and UPA leadership to formally approach BSP supremo Mayawati for seeking support for its Presidential nominee in order to prevent any ''communally-inclined person'' from occupying the Rashtrapati Bhawan in July.

''This is important and necessary to ensure the election of a proper person to the country's highest constitutional post,'' CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said at a press briefing on the party's National Executive meet that concldued today.

However, he made it clear that the Left parties had so far not suggested any names, as reported in a section of the media.

''At our joint meeting here recently, we finalised the broad criteria on the next President but did not zero in on on specific names,'' he clarified.

Mr Bardhan's statement came in the wake of the reports in a section of media that the Left parties had conveyed their preference for External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee as the next President. CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat was reported to have conveyed to Congress chief and UPA Chairperson about the Left's decision that Mr Mukherjee would be ''acceptable'' to them.

He said the Left parties hoped that it would be possible to evolve a consensus on the candidate, within a week or even lesser.'' ''Let the UPA leadership talk to the UPA allies and the other secular parties outside to find a secular candidate so that name could be formally announced.'' On the Left's criteria, Mr Bardhan noted that the Presidential candidate should have the requisite political stature, background, integral knowledge and experience of the functioning of the political system to be able to fulfil his responsibilities under the Constitution and create a balance between the legislature and the judiciary.

''The person should be someone with impecable secular credentials so that he can uphold secular values,'' he stressed.

UNI

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