The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) has formally appealed to Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to support Pranab Mukherjee as the candidate for the country’s next President.
Senior WBPCC leader and state irrigation and waterways minister Manas Bhunia on Sunday made this appeal.
Earlier Ms Banerjee had said she would support the candidature of current Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar or former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi or even former President APJ Abdul Kalam, virtually saying no to Pranab Mukherjee as the next President.
“Pranab Mukherjee is the son of Bengal. When his name is in discussion as a possible candidate for the next President, our ally in the Centre as well as in the state, the Trinamul Congress, has remained silent. As a Congress worker, I wish to appeal to the Trinamul Congress chief to come forward and publicly support Mr Mukherjee’s
candidature for this post,” Dr Bhunia said.
Meanwhile, amid growing support for him as UPA’s presidential candidate, Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday preferred to remain tight-lipped on the issue in a party programme at Khargram in Murshidabad where Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury remarked that they would like to see him the country’s next President.