Having adopted an aggressive posture at a press conference in the Parliament House complex on Tuesday that the National Democratic Alliance is going to announce the name of its candidate for the Presidential poll in the evening at former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's house, the much awaited meeting ended by merely authorising Vajpayee to nominate a candidate of his choice.

"In the NDA's meeting, it was decided to authorise Vajpayeeji to nominate a person of his choice by holding talks," NDA convenor George Fernandes told newsmen outside the residence of the former PM.

Television channels had lined up in the hope of announcing the name of the NDA choice to the nation.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who briefed the media in the afternoon, was upbeat that the NDA candidate had requiste numbers and told newsmen that former president of the BJP Lal Kishenchand Advani had said that once the name was finalised, the entire party leadership should make an all out effort to ensure the victory of the presidential candidate.

The next date of the NDA meeting has not yet been fixed to discuss the matter further.

Reacting to the developments soon after the press conference by Malhotra, Abhishek Singhvi, Congress spokesperson, said that if the NDA was going to announce its nominee then the contest would become inevitable.

"Then they would be foreclosing the choice for a consensus candidate," he said.

He did not name anyone who may get the United Progressive Alliance and Left support for the nomination.

"The Congress president would hold talks on the matter," he quipped.

A senior minister added the name of Home Minister Shivraj Patil in the list of three Congress aspirants namely Pranab Mukherjee, Karan Singh and Sushil Kumar Shinde.