UNPA to abstain from Presidential voting

New Delhi, July 14: The United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) today decided to abstain from voting in the July 19 Presidential polls and put up its own candidate for the post of Vice President.

The UNPA would support a Left candidate for vice-presidentship ''only if they withdraw from the UPA,'' AIADMK supremo and Aliance leader Jayalalithaa said briefing the media after a three-hour long meeting of the leaders here.

She also announced that the Alliance will keep equidistance from both the UPA and NDA, and will not support presidential candidate of either.

''Keeping that in view, we have decided to abstain from voting in July 19 polls,'' she said, adding that abstention was legally a right step.

TDP chief Chandra Babu Naidu said they were yet to decide the name of their candidate for the vice presidential election.

However, they were not expecting any support either from NDA or the Left.

''We are not expecting to win, but we are fielding our candidate tor register our identity,'' Ms Jayalalithaa said replying to the question as to whether they expected any suport for their candidate.

Earlier, political circles were agog with speculations that the UNPA will support a Left candidate for the post of Vice President.

''The UNPA will grow and we are at present only preparing for the 2009 Lok Sabha election,'' The AIADMK supremo said. ''Soon more political parties will be joining us,'' she added. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose Samajwadi party is one of the main contituents of the Alliance, denied that there were any differences among the UNPA partners.

''We continue to maintain our anti-BJP and anti-Congress stance,'' he said.

Ms Jayalalithaa added,''we are maintianing the same political position as we held during earlier meetings of the alliance at SP leader Amar Singh's residence here.'' Without naming UPA or NDA presidential caandidates, the Alliance leaders again asserted that Dr APJ Kalam was best suited for another term.

Replying to a question, the AIADMK chief said BJP leader Jaswant Singh came to meet her yesterday and discussed the ''prevailing political situation'' and consciously avoided making any refrence to the presidential polls.

Regarding NC leader Farooq Abdullah, she said,'' he informally also joined us later.'' She also said Dr Abdullah was part of the UNPA, though he could not formally join it today.

The recently floated UNPA has AIDMK, TDP, Asom Gana Parishad, Samajwadi Party and the Indian National Lok Dal as its main constituents.

Later, Samajwadi party leader Amar Singh alleged that the Centre was acting with a vendetta against Ms Jayalalithaa by freezing her accounts.

He said UNPA leaders will meet before the start of the monsoon session of Parliament to organise their opposition to the ''vindictive moves'' which, he alleged, were being taken at the behest of Finance Minister P Chidamabaram.

UNI