Top SP leaders meet NDA convenor George Fernandes

New Delhi, Jun 16 (UNI) Top leadership of the Samajwadi Party today held a meeting with NDA convenor and JD(U) leader George Fernandes in connection with the Presidential polls.

The Samajwadi Party is one of the constituents of the recently- launched Third Front, which has indicated that it would support neither the UPA nor the NDA candidate.

The meeting, which was held at the residence of veteran SP leader Janeshwar Misra and attended by SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, party general secretary Amar Singh besides Mr Misra and Mr Fernandes, was described as ''informal'' by a senior party leader.

He told UNI that the leaders discussed the agenda of the Monday's meeting of the Third Front to be held at Chennai.

Later, Mr Amar Singh called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence.

The Third Front, recently formed by eight regional parties including the SP, has said it would declare its Presidential candidate at the Chennai meeting.

The NDA has already rejected the appeal of the Congress to support the candidature of Ms Pratibha Patil. Their leaders felt that the contest was inevitable in the light of UPA announcing its candidature without even attempting a consensus, according to sources.

However, the odds against the NDA candidate are heavy. With 58, 300 votes of the Bahujan Samaj Party, the UPA candidate was expected to get 570,000 votes out of the total 10,98,882 votes on the roll.

On the other hand, the BJP and its allies do not have more than 354,689 votes. Other parties like the Samajwadi Party, AIADMK, TDP, RLD, AGP and the MDMK carry a total of 106,281 votes.

Ms Patil would still be ahead with 100,000 votes even if all the Third Front parties voted for the NDA, as its candidate is expected to obtain a maximum of 4,60,970 votes.

UNI