Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: With the Presidential elections becoming interesting by the minute and moving at a fast pace, the Congress Core Group is met in the national capital on Thursday evening, in an apparent bid to salvage the damage done by its ally Mamata Banerjee and thrash out a solution on the Presidential poll.
Senior Congress leaders, P Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee, AK Antony were part of the meeting which was attended by UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and was reportedly chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The meeting took place at the PM’s residence, 7 RCR.
Earlier in the day, Congress president Sonia Gandhi held a series of discussion with her colleagues and senior leaders of UPA alliance partners to build consensus over a presidential candidate acceptable to all.
With several names doing the rounds, the race for Raisina has become more complicated and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's credibility is on test to ensure the nomination of a preferred Congress candidate.
In a bid to consensus on the issue, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Makhan Lal Photedar, RK Dhawan met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence today.
Shortly after their meeting, Defence Minister AK Antony, Home Minister P Chidambaram and DMK strongman TR Balu also met Sonia Gandhi.
During the meeting, Balu reportedly told Sonia Gandhi about the assurance given by DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi to support Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for the top job.
First Published: Thursday, June 14, 2012, 18:43