Refusing to spell out their preference, Left parties on Wednesday asked the United Progressive Alliance government to come up with a candidate with the "widest possible acceptance" for the Presidential election.
After a meeting of the four Left parties in Delhi, the leaders said they did not discuss any names during the 90-minute-long deliberations though they mentioned that Nationalist Congress Party leader P A Sangma approached them for support.
The leaders, in a statement, maintained that there should be a candidate for the Presidential election based on the "widest possible acceptance".
The meeting was attended by Communist Party of India - Marxist's Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and S Ramachandran Pillai, Communist Party of India's A B Bardhan, Sudhakar Reddy and D Raja, Revolutionary Socialist Party's T J Chandrachoodan and Abani Roy and Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas and G Devarajan.
"We have not discussed any names. The UPA should come up with a name," Biswas told reporters.
When asked about Mamata Banerjee proposing three names including that of Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Bardhan said many people are proposing many names.
"Let's see," he said.
"She doesn't have one name. She cannot choose one name. So she is proposing three names," he added.
Queried on whether parties like Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party will help the UPA in the Presidential elections, he said these parties had supported the government on issues earlier as well.
"We have to consider many things. If someone is saying he is tribal, so we should support him, then what about our ideology, our political thinking," Bardhan said.
He also said the Left parties gave a patient hearing to Sangma but did not give any assurance to him.
"We will discuss the matter. We will soon decide. Let the UPA come up with a name which has wider acceptability," he said.
