Sonia meets Ajit Singh

today had a meeting with RLD chief Ajit Singh in the backdrop of her efforts to hold consultations with UPA constituents and others to forge a consensus on the Presidential nominee.

RLD with five members in Lok Sabha is the latest entrant in the UPA having joined the ruling alliance just before the Uttar Pradesh elections.

Congress has already held primary talks in this regard with its allies Trinamool Congress, DMK and NCP. While Gandhi herself met Mamata Banerjee and Sharad Pawar, senior party leader A K Antony had gone to Chennai to talk to the DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi on the issue.

Gandhi's meeting with the RLD chief took place on a day, when the highest decision making body of the party and the government Congress Core Group also met.

The talk in the party circles is that if need be, Gandhi could again be holding consultations with these allies. In the next few days, the Congress President is also expected to conclude the consultations with one-member parties.

She has already met some of them including Asadduddin Owaisi of the MIM.

Though there have been intense speculation about the names of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari, Congress had indicated that it was in no hurry to make up its mind on the Presidential candidate and a decision was expected only the next month.

A senior party leader speaking on the condition of anonymity said the issue was still open.

Gandhi would take up the consultations with supporting parties of the UPA only after the budget session of Parliament, which concludes on May 22, the sources said.

Congress is chanting the consensus mantra for the Presidential election in view of the fact that it was short of numbers in the electoral college if the entire UPA plus some outside supporters do not unitedly put up a candidate.

Party leaders have also said that they are open to talk to even the BJP for consensus.