New Delhi:
Mamata Banerjee is in the Capital and has said that discussing who should be the next President of India is on her agenda. The Trinamool Congress chief - who is expected to meet the Prime Minister in Parliament today and might meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday - has so far been non-committal. While the Congress tries hard to secure Ms Banerjee's support, there is some speculation that the Trinamool might have a candidate of its own.
Foremost on the Bengal Chief Minister's to-do-in-Delhi list is the precarious financial health of her state - she wants a three-year moratorium on the payment of interest on Central loans and political observers say she might well use this opportunity to barter her support on the Presidential candidate for that. Ms Banerjee will also attend a meeting of Chief Ministers called by the UPA government to discuss the controversial National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) on Saturday, May 5. She is expected to return to Kolkata on Saturday.
Topmost on the Congress' Mamata agenda is getting its ally to endorse its candidate for President - the party is said to have narrowed its list for now down to Vice-President Hamid Ansari and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. So soon after Ms Banerjee arrived in Delhi last evening, she had a visitor in Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath. After the meeting the senior Congress leader said, "I'm sure when Mamata meets the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi, there will be convergence". Trinamool Congress sources said Ms Banerjee would wait for the Congress to propose names.
Before she left for Delhi, Ms Banerjee said that she had not spoken to anyone about the presidential elections yet. "I did not speak to anyone. I am going to Delhi. When I am in Delhi, I meet everyone because I was a member of Parliament for 25 years," she told reporters.
Ms Banerjee, with 19 MPs in the West Bengal Assembly, gets to the table a sizeable number of votes in the electoral college that elects the President. The Congress-led UPA has about 41 per cent of the electoral college, the BJP-led NDA even less at 28 per cent. Both need support to ensure majority; the BJP has said it will not support a Congress candidate and will make a contest of it. Towards that, it is not averse to talking to regional satraps like Ms Banerjee.
Her close aide and Railway Minister Mukul Roy met senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley yesterday at the latter's Parliament House office for around 20 minutes. After the meeting, sources said Mr Roy wanted BJP support for the forthcoming discussion on the performance of Railways during the discussion on demands for grants in the Rajya Sabha. BJP sources insisted there was no discussion on the Presidential elections.