UNPA delegation to call on Kalam on June 20

New Delhi, June 20: Leaders of the newly floated United National Progressive Alliance(UNPA), which had sprung a surprise by proposing President APJ Abdul Kalam's name for a second term, will call on the President here this afternoon to persuade him to agree to their proposal.

However, Ms Jayalalitha, leader of the AIADMK, one of the Alliance constituents, will not be accompanying the delegation that would go to meet Dr Kalam, as her visit to the capital stands cancelled.

The leaders will hold a meeting at UNPA constituent Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's residence at 27 Lodhi Road here before proceeding to the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

SP sources, when contacted here did not give any reason for the cancellation of the AIADMK leader's visit, but said she will be represented by three of her party MPs.

The leaders who are attending today's meeting include Mr Vaiko (MDMK), Mr Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh (SP), N Chandrababu Naidu (TDP), Om Prakash Chautala (INLD), Babulal Marandi (JVM) and Brindaban Goswami (AGP).

After a marathon conclave of UNPA at Chennai on June 18, J Jayalalithaa, one of the architects of the new Front, had announced Dr Kalam's name as the Front's choice.

She had said with a majority of the people not inclined to take the UPA candidate and Rajasthan Governor Prathiba Patil seriously, and the candidature of Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, backed by the NDA, not being welcomed by all parties, there was a deep political divide on the issue, and appealed to all parties, including the Left, to sink their differences and arrive at a consensus on Mr Kalam's candidature.

UNI