The Hindu – Will talk to Mamata when she is ready, says Pranab Mukherjee’s

All UPA partners but one have endorsed my candidature

Shiv Sahay Singh

Kolkata, 9 July 2012. Amid reservations of the Trinamool Congress to his candidature, UPA presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee made it clear here on Monday that he will approach Mamata Banerjee for support, only if she is willing to speak to him.

“I am ready to talk to her as and when she is ready. Since my candidature was announced, I have expressed my desire to have the support of the Trinamool,” Mr. Mukherjee said here.

Mr. Mukherjee was speaking to journalists after meeting the MPs and MLAs of the Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Forward Bloc, the Samajwadi Party and the Democratic Socialist Party at two separate meetings. Mr. Mukherjee said all partners of the UPA had endorsed his candidature “except one.”

He emphasised that parties in the National Democratic Alliance and several regional parties were supporting his candidature.

“I understand that they [Trinamool Congress] have not yet taken a decision. When they will take the decision, I hope she will support my candidature,” he said.

Mr. Mukherjee’s comments are seen as a hardening of stand by the Congress, increasingly averse to going out of its way to seek the Trinamool’s support even though it would welcome it.

Mamata’s silence

So far Ms. Banerjee has maintained a studied silence on whom her party will support in the presidential contest. After her nominee, the former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, had opted out of the race, she had asserted the “game was not yet over.” Later she told her party MPs and MLAs she would take a final call on the matter three days before the July 19 election.

There has been a shift in the position of the Congress. Earlier, it had urged its bigger ally in the State to support Mr. Mukherjee’s candidature. However, at a meeting with him during the day, some of its senior State leaders were critical of the line taken by the Trinamool.

The Congress is confident of Mr. Mukherjee’s victory even without the support of the Trinamool Congress. Last week, during a visit here, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal asserted that the UPA nominee would win the polls with at least 65 per cent of the votes.

This was irrespective of how the Trinamool decided on its stand regarding the election.

‘Initiative should come from candidate’

Special Correspondent reports:

In the ongoing war of nerves between the Congress and its biggest ally at the Centre over the presidential polls, the Trinamool Congress indicated on Monday that the first move on a dialogue should come from the ‘other side’.

Asked to respond to the comment made by Pranab Mukherjee that he was ready to talk to Mamata Banerjee whenever she was, senior Trinamool Congress leader and Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee said: “He will have to speak his mind if he is keen to talk … when we contest elections, we approach everybody.”

“Pranab Mukherjee could have telephoned her to ascertain that and this requires no mediator,” Mr. Subrata Mukherjee said, adding that the party had no information of his visit to the state to campaign for the elections.

In an oblique reference to Pranab Mukherjee’s meeting with MPs and MLAs of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Forward Bloc in the Assembly seeking their support for his candidature, the Panchayat Minister said “Some people feel comfortable in the company of CPI(M). If it makes them happy, so be it.”

“It is a shame to seek support of the CPI(M), we would never do this even if we were in dire straits,” Firhad Hakim, Minister for Urban Development, said.

To a question on the Trinamool Congress candidate for the polls, Subrata Mukherjee said that while the Trinamool Congress has no candidate, but A P J Kalam was its choice as the presidential candidate.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3620078.ece

The Hindu – Post-Pranab UPA: looking for a Leader of the Lok Sabha, fixing the economy

The man most likely to get that job is Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde

Smita Gupta

New Delhi, 30 June 2012. Even as there is no certainty on precisely when the next Cabinet reshuffle takes place or indeed, when a new Finance Minister is appointed — it is likely to happen only after the country gets a new President and a Vice-President — a new Leader of the Lok Sabha will have to be named before the monsoon session starts in July-end.

As things stand, the man most likely to get that job is Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde: Congress sources say that of the senior leaders available in the Lower House, he fulfils best the criteria required, apart from the social message that it will send out as he is a senior Dalit leader. As far as experience goes, he has not just been a Union Minister, he has been Chief Minister of Maharashtra — earlier, as Finance Minister in the State, he presented nine successive budgets. In a fractious House, his rapport with leaders across party lines can help him play the role of Leader better, and he has a pleasant, conciliatory manner.

The only factor that can go against him, senior party leaders say, is that he has deposed before the Commission investigating the Adarsh scandal in Mumbai, even though there are no specific charges against him.

If it is not Mr. Shinde, the party will have to dip into its pool of senior Cabinet Ministers: they include Home Minister and seven-time Lok Sabha member P. Chidambaram, Corporate Affairs Minister Veerappa Moily (if the party wants to send out a message to poll-bound Karnataka), who has been Chief Minister of Karnataka, and Minister for Urban Development Kamal Nath, who has been a Lok Sabha member a record eight times.

As for the other jobs the UPA’s Presidential candidate, Pranab Mukherjee, vacated, they are being gradually filled: for instance, one of the many Empowered Groups of Ministers (EGoM) that he headed — the one on Telecom Spectrum — will now be chaired by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Gradually, in the coming days, new heads will be announced for the other EGoMs and GoMs.

Finance portfolio

As for the Finance portfolio, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has taken charge and, as the events of this week have demonstrated, he is paying it the special attention it needs. For the UPA government, clearly, fixing the economy will head its agenda, as its growing unpopularity has as much to do with the stain of corruption as high prices.

However, government sources say the Prime Minister is likely to relinquish the Finance portfolio ahead of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Tokyo slated for October this year. Till then, he will run the Ministry with the advice of Economic Advisory Council chairman C. Rangarajan and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

He may re-allocate the work now allotted to the two MoSs in the Finance Ministry, S.S. Palanimanickam, and Namo Narain Meena. B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in charge of Finance, will play a coordinating role between the PMO and the Finance Ministry. A 1987 batch IAS officer, he was Dr. Singh’s private secretary in UPA 1.

Meanwhile, the Congress was quick to rubbish the Opposition’s claims that the Prime Minister differed with the former Finance Minister on how to deal with the economy. “Such allegations are baseless,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said, responding to questions, stressing that the five issues that were referred to when economic reforms were spoken of — the Direct Tax Code, the Goods and Services Tax, the banking, insurance and pension reforms — were on course.

“The Standing Committee’s Report on the DTC is back with the government, while the government has been trying for the last three years to get a political consensus on the GST,” he said, adding: “As for the remaining three, some of them are with the Standing Committee, some with the government. A process has to be followed: it’s a work in progress.”

http://www.thehindu.com/news/article3585917.ece

The Tribune – Pranab vs Sangma for President’s post; Ex-Lok Sabha Speaker quits NCP

Anita Katyal, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 20. The July 19 Presidential election will witness a contest between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma. Sangma, founder member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), resigned from the party today. NCP chief Sharad Pawar has accepted his resignation.

The NCP, which is a constituent of the UPA and is backing Mukherjee’s candidature, was not happy with Sangma’s decision and had even warned him that he would face disciplinary action if he decided to contest the Presidential poll.

Sangma’s candidature had been proposed by AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Sangma has now got the additional support of a divided NDA which was left with little option after former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who was its first choice, opted out of the race.

Janata Party President Subramaniam Swamy, who has been in constant touch with Sangma on behalf of the NDA, called on the former Lok Sabha Speaker this afternoon to convey the NDA’s support. It was after this verbal assurance that Sangma resigned from the NCP. Interestingly, it was Swamy who announced his resignation to the media. “Sangma had no option but to resign from the NCP. He has done so for self-respect. We are trying to build a consensus in his favour,” he said.

BJP leaders who met here at LK Advani’s residence this evening, decided that their decision will announced after tomorrow’s meeting of NDA allies.

However, the BJP-led NDA is not all on the same page on this issue.

Shiv Sena, the BJP’s closest ally, has already announced that it will back UPA candidate Mukherjee as it does not see any merit in forcing a token contest. Similarly, the Janata Dal (U) is also not in favour of backing Sangma and would prefer to pledge its support to Mukherjee.

It is learnt that JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav has conveyed as much to the BJP leadership. It was because of these internal differences that the last two meetings of NDA leaders had ended inconclusively.

In his resignation letter, Sangma stated that the Tribal Forum of India had projected his candidature for the Presidential election which had the backing of several political parties while his own party was disinclined to endorse his candidature.

“This amounts to denial of the aspirations of tribals of the country,” he said, adding that he had no option but to resign from the party.

In an effort to put up a credible fight, the BJP will not project Sangma as its own nominee but as an Independent candidate.

By doing so, it hopes to win over parties like the Trinamool Congress and the Left Front, which would otherwise not like to be seen in the company of the NDA.

However, Mukherjee is well ahead of his opponent. Not only does he have the backing of the UPA constituents, except the Trinamool Congress, but he also has the support of the Samajwadi Party, the BSP, the Lok Janashakti Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Battlelines drawn

Janata Party chief Subramaniam Swamy called on Sangma on Wednesday afternoon to convey the NDA’s support

It was after this verbal assurance that Sangma quit the NCP

Swamy announced Sangma’s resignation to the media

BJP won’t project Sangma as its own nominee, but as an Independent candidate to win over the Trinamool and Left Front

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120621/main2.htm

The Asian Age – Differences in NDA, decision on president’s poll deferred

New Delhi, 17 June 2012. Strong reservations from key ally JD(U) over pitting a candidate against UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday forced the NDA to defer its decision on the presidential election.

At a two-hour inconclusive meeting of the NDA, the JD-U is believed to have disavoured a fight against Mukherjee because of his stature but BJP is said to have been keen on backing former Speaker P.A. Sangma, who has been propped up by BJD and AIADMK with an eye on the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

After the meeting at BJP leader L K Advani’s residence, from which BJP’s oldest ideological ally Shiv Sena kept away, NDA convener Sharad Yadav merely said more discussions were needed to arrive at a right decision.

“The NDA meeting took place today. Various leaders put forth their views in detail. More discussions are required in this regard to arrive at the right decision.”

“L.K. Advani will talk to chief ministers of NDA-ruled states and all others. NDA will meet sometime later again to take a decision in this regard. Those outside (Delhi) will also be consulted,” Tadav told reporters after the meeting.

The JD(U), which shares power with BJP in Bihar, was clear that there is no strong purpose served by contesting against Mukherjee, a tall leader with vast experience in government and Parliament, and more so when the UPA has a clear edge in the electoral college.

However, BJP leaders including Advani and Sushma Swaraj are understood to have argued that Mukherjee should not go uncontested, especially in view of the Lok Sabha polls due two years hence.

The BJP is said to be keen on supporting Sangma so that the alliance could rope in parties like BJD and AIADMK that could be valuable in thenext Lok Sabha elections. (PTI)

http://www.asianage.com/india/differences-nda-decision-prez-poll-deferred-987

The Asian Age – Congress: Can’t spare the Prime Minister

Venkatesh Kesari, Asian Age Correspondent

New Delhi, Jun 15, 2012. Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi on Thursday rejected the names of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, suggested by Ms Banerjee and Mr Mulayam Singh as candidates for President.

Making it clear that it cannot spare Dr Manmohan Singh and that he would continue to be PM till 2014, the Congress rejected the names of Dr Kalam and Mr Chatterjee outright. Mr Dwivedi disapproved of Ms Banerjee disclosing the names of Mr Mukherjee and Dr Ansari as the first and second choices of the Congress.

He said the process of consultation was still on and Mrs Gandhi had not finalised any name. Mrs 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,” he added.

Senior Congress minister Ambika Soni targeted Ms Banerjee directly, stating that the CM’s behaviour “doesn’t make political or ethical sense”. “Never has there been an instance where the name of a sitting PM is bandied about like this,” she said. “It is a constitutional post, he heads the government and the country, and one desists from such lack of courtesy… People of our country would wonder why such tactics are being adopted by political parties,” Ms Soni told reporters.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury was critical of the way the names had led to speculation. “It is neither good for the nation nor for our polity to speculate on these names… It is not good for those also whose names have been floated in the speculation market,” he said.

SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav attacked the Congress, accusing it of not dealing with Mr Mulayam Singh’s party in an appropriate manner while holding consultations on the election. Mr Yadav said the Congress called “two-MP” parties for consultations on the issue but “did not treat the SP the way it should have”. “Responsibility for maintaining relations lies with the major partner. If there is something wrong, Congress should be held responsible,” he said.

The Congress appeared to be zeroing in on the candidature of Mr Mukherjee on Thursday night. The party core group, headed by Mrs Gandhi, met at Dr Singh’s residence and is believed to have decided to put forward Mr Mukherjee’s name at Friday’s UPA meeting. “No dark horse” is under consideration in the Congress-UPA camp, remarked a leader. The UPA meeting is expected to formally endorse the name of Mr Mukherjee as the alliance candidate.

The CPI said it favoured a dalit woman as the next President, a remark widely interpreted as the party batting for LS Speaker Meira Kumar. Former CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan parried questions on whether the Left parties would back Mr Mukherjee. “Mahatma Gandhi has said one good thing… among many other good things, that a dalit woman should be made President,” he said, adding, “Sorry, I am not taking any names.”

Asked whether the Left could afford not to support Mr Mukherjee, he said he should not be asked such questions. “We will wait and watch. The Left parties are meeting here on June 21 to firm up strategy,” he said. Mr Bardhan said only four leaders — NCP chief Sharad Pawar, BJD leader Naveen Patnaik, AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa and TDP president Chandrababu Naidu — had spoken to him.

http://www.asianage.com/india/cong-can-t-spare-pm-302

The Hindu – Dramatic twist to Presidential race

Mulayam, Mamata propose Manmohan, Kalam, Somnath as candidates

Smita Gupta & Gargi Parsai

New Delhi, 13 June 2012. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her new political comrade, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, sent Lutyen’s Delhi into a spin on Wednesday evening after they announced a list of three candidates for the Presidency that included the name of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh – the other two were the former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and the former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

This was barely an hour after Ms. Banerjee revealed to a battery of TV cameras outside 10 Janpath that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had told her that Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari, in that order, were her party’s choices for the next incumbent of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Understandably, the introduction of Dr. Singh’s name has led to wild speculation in political circles, ranging from talk about a “fixed match” — that the Congress wants to change the face of a government that has been battered by financial scandals and inability to control prices — to trying to fathom the meaning of the Banerjee-Yadav offensive.

There was total silence at the time of writing from both the Congress and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with most senior leaders switching off their phones. There was no official statement clarifying the position of Dr. Singh as the Congress’ political managers went into a huddle, working the phones with their allies to recalculate the numbers.

However, while Congress sources The Hindu spoke to appeared taken aback by the Banerjee-Yadav announcement, they all stressed that it was inconceivable that Ms. Gandhi would conspire with Mr. Yadav and Ms. Banerjee to rid the government of Dr. Singh. But whatever the circumstances, the announcement has embarrassed the Congress and placed Dr. Singh in a false position, with talk that the allies don’t trust him to continue as Prime Minister.

For, after the Prime Minister’s name was introduced into the presidential race, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who had earlier indicated support for Mr. Mukherjee, said, “The UPA will have to work on a consensus candidate in the light of the TMC-SP proposing the PM as one of their choices for President…A way out will have to be found.”

Of the Congress’ major allies, only the Dravida Munnetra Kazhgham (DMK) has said that it will back the Congress’ choice for President and that it is happy with Dr. Singh continuing as Prime Minister.

Clearly, the Congress will now have to rethink its strategy on the presidential election. It can either push Mr. Mukherjee’s name and call Ms. Banerjee’s bluff, or it could go back to the drawing board. What the party will do, party sources said, will hinge on the numbers they can still muster.

Of course, here, the Banerjee-Yadav duo’s announcement is being read in political circles as a direct challenge to the Congress and Ms. Gandhi. By muddying the political waters, the two leaders could be, Congress sources said, trying to ensure a contest that the party could lose. And if that were to happen, that would spell the demise of the UPA government and elections, something that would suit the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party: both parties have in the last one year won impressive victories in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. The earlier the next general elections the greater their chances of winning a majority of the Lok Sabha seats in their respective States.

For Ms. Banerjee, her new-found friendship with Mr. Yadav also removes the possibility of the SP replacing the Trinamool in the UPA, something that has been considered over the last six months, with the former blocking a range of Congress political initiatives. Indeed, she has been in constant touch of late with Mr. Yadav on the Presidential election. Together, the two parties hold 10.6 per cent of the votes in the electoral college. Mr. Yadav’s reasons for joining forces with Ms. Banerjee, Congress sources say, could be that he is unhappy that the disproportionate assets case pending against him has not been sorted out yet.

Earlier in the day, an SP leader told The Hindu that his party rejected the names suggested by Ms. Gandhi, even as Mr. Yadav appealed to all political parties to support one of the candidates of their choice. No reasons were given for not accepting the Congress nominees.

After the SP and Trinamool made their dramatic announcement at a crowded press conference at Mr. Yadav’s residence, Ms. Banerjee replied in the negative when asked whether she had mentioned any of these names to Ms. Gandhi when she met her on Wednesday. She said they emerged after her 45-minute-long meeting with Mr. Yadav. Asked who the first choice of the duo was, Mr. Singh asserted, “There is no priority.”

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3523934.ece

The Hindu – Sangma’s entry creates a buzz in Presidential race

Congress still playing cards close to its chest

Smita Gupta

New Delhi, 18 May 2012. A day after the AIADMK and the Biju Janata Dal endorsed Purno A. Sangma’s candidature for President, the former Lok Sabha Speaker’s chances in the Rashtrapati Bhavan sweepstakes dominated informal discussions across political parties. With Parliament still in session on Friday, conversations in its corridors centred round the significance of the move.

The most credible explanation came from BJD circles: since a candidate proposed by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance would not find favour with Opposition parties not inclined towards the BJP, and a Left-sponsored nominee would be opposed by the NDA, a name floated by the AIADMK and the BJD — both currently unattached to any political formation — might find readier acceptance across the Opposition. The BJD sources said that of late the Chief Ministers of Odhisha and Tamil Nadu — Naveen Patnaik and Jayalalithaa — tended to be in close touch with their counterparts in West Bengal, Bihar and Gujarat, Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi.

Would such a move succeed? Perhaps not, agreed the BJD sources, as the numbers will favour the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, provided it stays intact and gets the backing of the Left Parties and the support of either the Samajwadi Party or the Bahujan Samaj Party. Besides, Mr Sangma’s own party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the sources pointed out, clarified on Friday that it would stay with the UPA.

On Thursday, NCP supremo and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told journalists that Mr. Sangma had not spoken to him on the subject; on Friday, when the former Speaker met him, Mr. Pawar told him that the NCP was part of the UPA and his stand on the issue would be consistent with it.

The BJP, on its part, has been coy about Mr. Sangma’s candidature, even though his name comes from the AIADMK, a party it has been assiduously wooing, hoping it will swell the NDA ranks before the next polls.

Meanwhile, in the Congress, no new names have emerged after those of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari. On Friday, MPs of many non-Congress parties, including the BSP and the Left, concurred that if Mr. Mukherjee became the UPA’s official candidate, he could easily find support across Parliament and emerge as a consensus candidate, considering his stature and standing.

Most MPs of the Congress The Hindu spoke to said the possibility of Mr. Sangma emerging as a challenge to its candidate — whoever it is — was remote, as they were confident that the UPA and the parties that support it from outside had an edge in terms of numbers.

But even as the pros and cons of Mr. Sangma’s candidature were discussed, it was evident that a majority in the Congress view him with disfavour, given the manner of his exit from the party in the late 1990s. A Congress secretary Praveen Davar even issued a statement, accusing Mr. Sangma of playing the BJP’s game, and saying, “Mr. Purno Sangma lacks both the political and ethical stature expected of the nation’s Rashtrapati.”

But as Mr. Sangma continues to lobby tribal legislators, his entry into the race has begun to generate some excitement, with some MPs even saying his entry will force the Congress to declare its candidate soon.

As far as the Congress is concerned, party sources said that while the names of Mr. Mukherjee and Mr. Ansari were still on the table, it was possible that a dark horse could emerge in a couple of weeks— a name that might help the party in one of the States going to the polls over the next two years.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3433370.ece?homepage=true