New Delhi: The race for the President's post got complicated by the minute on Wednesday. The list of contenders grew to five prominent politicians, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. This came after Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav rejected Congress President Sonia Gandhi's choices and came up with three new names.
It's complete confusion after a series of political confabulations on who will be the next President of India. The contenders whose names have been taken out in the open are:
- Pranab Mukherjee, who Mamata Banerjee says he is the first on Sonia Gandhi's list.
- Hamid Ansari is Sonia's second choice, says Mamata Banerjee.
But Mulayam Singh Yadav has now thrown up three names in a joint press conference with Mamata Banerjee. According to Mulayam, he has considered APJ Abdul Kalam as the President for the second time, Somnath Chatterjee and lastly Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
But with confusion in the UPA ranks and the Left rejecting Pranab Mukherjee and Hamid Ansari's names, the speculation continues amongst other names in the race, which include that of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. But it's clear that the race to the Rashtrapati Bhawan is far from over.
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Mukherjee was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha in July 1969 and was re-elected in 1975, 1981, 1993 and 1999. He rose through a series of cabinet posts to become the Finance Minister of India in 1982. He served as the Finance Minister of ...
Bharat Ratna Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam born October 15, 1931, Tamil Nadu, India, usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was the eleventh President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007. During his term as The President, ...
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. He is the first Sikh to hold the office.
Singh is also the 7th Pri ...
Somnath Chatterjee (Bengali: ?????? ?????????????) (born July 25, 1929 in Tezpur, Assam) is an Indian politician who had been associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for most of his life, though currently an independent.[citatio ...
Mohammad Hamid Ansari is the 13th and current Vice President of India. He also serves as the President of the Indian Institute of Public Administration and as the Chancellor of Punjab University, Chandigarh.
He was born in Kolkata, West Benga ...
Meira Kumar is an Indian politician and a five time Member of Parliament. She was elected unopposed as the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha on 3 June 2009. She was born on March 31, 1945 in Bihar, India.
She is a lawyer and a former diplomat. ...
Mamata Banerjee is the 11th and current Chief Minister of West Bengal. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded All India Trinamool Congress in 1997 and became chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress. ...
A veteran politician, Mulayam is a post graduate in Arts from Agra University. He entered electoral politics in the 1960s and won his first election in 1967 to become an MLA in UP Assembly. He won UP Assembly elections in 1974, 1977, 1985, 198 ...
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