Third Front leaders are expected to call on President A P J Abdul Kalam on Friday and explain to him their inability to gather more votes for him after their request that he reconsider his decision not to run for a second term in office.

This was disclosed by Jaswant Singh, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party who briefed newsmen at the end of a meeting with UNPA leaders led by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu at the residence of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Naidu said that the UNPA leaders would meet again on Friday at with the NDA leadership.

Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party admitted that though they had called on a number of parties the results were not very encouraging.

Both Naidu and Jaswant Singh said that the candidature of Shekhawat did not arise during the meeting. "We will cross that bridge on Friday after they come back with their assessment of the situation with Dr Kalam," Jaswant Singh said.

A senior party leader of BJP said that Shekhawat is going to contest as the independent candidate should Kalam decline and he has a large number of personal votes to ensure his victory. Shekhawat has never lost an election so far.

Rashtrapati Bhavan [Images] sources said that Dr Kalam is keeping an the developments and he would make his decision in due course.