As the debate on consensus on presidential candidate is still on among political circles, the sources said that Pranab Mukherjee, the one who had been allegedly criticized by many political analysts over his alleged inefficiency in handling finance ministry, is apparently pulling up his sox in his efforts for appealing political leaders for the support.  The sources said that he had already called up several crucial leaders of regional parties in various state and sought their support. If news is to be believed, he even presumably rang up TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu and asked him to support his candidature.

Meanwhile, UPA is  not caring a fig on the divisions among political circles on its presidential candidate. This was evident as Parliamentary Affairs minister, Pawan Kumar Bansal on Tuesday
said four sets of papers for nominations were being readied for the presidential nomination by Pranab Mukherjee.

It is known that one of the close allies of UPA, TMC headed by Mamata Banerjee, is against UPA's presidential candidature. On the other hand, NDA too was indecisive as some parties in NDA support Pranab while a few other pitch their voice in support of Sanghma. In fact, in BJP itself the difference was clearly reflected as BJP MP Maneka Gandhi on Monday said Pranab was an excellent candidate and extended her support to him.

The sources said that the latest developments in the country were closely watched by the international media. Any decision taken without arriving at consensus would be nothing but UPA throwing itself in the midst of controversies besides apparently projecting itself as one of the weak alliances. All in all, as said by many political parties, will the Presidential elections 2012 have impact on general elections 2014? One has to wait for another two years to know what the outcome would be.

(AW Phani)