Forward Bloc to urge Left parties to back Pranab

Forward Bloc will ask other Left parties to back UPA Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee, saying he has earned the "widest possible acceptance", a move aimed at driving a "wedge" between Congress and Trinamool Congress.

The party, which has two MPs and 12 MLAs, will try to persuade other Left parties to support Mukherjee in the meeting of the Left parties, G Deverajan, National Secretary of Forward Bloc, told PTI.

He said the Left parties had earlier decided that the candidate should have the "widest possible acceptance" and in the present context, the Congress veteran has got support from the political spectrum.

"Mukherjee has support from all sides. UPA is behind it. NDA allies Shiv Sena and JD(U) are in his favour. Two non-UPA, non-NDA parties, BSP and SP are supporting him. Now he has the widest possible acceptance," Deverajan said.

He said his party will strongly argue for supporting Mukherjee in the meeting.

"Also, our stand is that we should support Mukherjee and we should use this to drive a wedge between Congress and its ally Trinamool Congress and use it to the Left's advantage in West Bengal," he said.

Asked whether Forward Bloc will vote for Mukherjee if the Left parties decided to go against him or abstain, he said after discussions, they will take a single decision and abide by it.

CPI(M) has not firmed up its stand on the issue though indications are that the party is mulling either to support Mukherjee or abstain from the July 19 poll.

Sources said one section of the party is for abstaining from the poll while another is for supporting Mukherjee. The section advocating abstention is of the view that it cannot be seen voting for a Congress candidate.

Left parties account for around 51,000 vote value in the electoral college of 10.98 lakh vote value and Mukherjee has already garnered support of parties which has a total vote value of 5.44 lakh. If all votes polled are valid, then the winning candidate needs to get at least 5,49,442 votes.