Cong no to sparing PM for Prez post, rebuffs SP-TMC

"We cannot afford to spare Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. The other two names (A P J Abdul Kalam and Somnath Chatterjee) are not acceptable," Congress General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters.

"During UPA-II (election of leader), we have already said he (Singh) will remain the Prime Minister till 2014. Congress does not take such a step (of changing its leader) in between," he said.

His forthright assertion came after Congress President Sonia Gandhi held parleys with senior party leaders Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony and P Chidambaram at her residence in the wake of TMC and SP stunning the party by proposing the names of Manmohan Singh, Kalam and Chatterjee as a counter to candidature of Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari.

 

Virtually disapproving of Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee's action of disclosing the names of Mukherjee and Ansari as first and second choices of Congress, Dwivedi said the process of consultation was still on and Gandhi had not finalised any name.

Gandhi is in the process of consulting even single-member parties and in the course of it two names have come up. "If Congress had decided on the name, two names would not have come up," he said.

"There is a dignity to the process. When such talks are held, names are not discussed outside," the Congress leader said, apparently referring to Banerjee disclosing the names to the media immediately after meeting Gandhi at her residence yesterday. (MORE)