Date:13/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/13/stories/2007061318620100.htm

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Left to consult DMK, others on choice

Special Correspondent

Criteria for Presidential candidate has found wide acceptance: Prakash Karat

NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Tuesday decided to hold talks with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and other parties on the presidential election, and reiterated that the criteria set out by them found wide acceptance.

The Left parties had said the candidate must be a political person with impeccable secular credentials and a fine understanding of the Constitution to maintain a balance among the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, and one who could win the contest with ease.

The overwhelming mood at the hour-long meeting was that Home Minister Shivraj Patil would not be an effective candidate.

Leaders privy to the discussions told The Hindu that they were less than enthusiastic about his candidature. The view was that Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, an aspirant, would be a strong candidate in an electoral battle.

Mr. Patil figured in the first set of names informally forwarded by the United Progressive Alliance to the Left parties. "We have not received any formal intimation on the choice of the presidential candidate of the UPA. We shall be meeting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and have a final round of discussion with him and also with others and hope to be able to come to a final decision," Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary, Prakash Karat, said at a briefing of the Left leaders.

No Left candidate

The criteria set out by the Left parties found "wide acceptance," he said and asserted that the candidate would be from the UPA. "We have no Left candidate. The Left is separate, and it cannot be clubbed with the UPA," he said to a question whether it would be a UPA-Left nominee. He said the Left parties would talk to other parties, including those who formed the third front.

Besides Mr. Karat, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, his colleague D. Raja, All-India Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas and Revolutionary Socialist Party MP Abani Roy attended the meeting.