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Shahid K Abbas in New Delhi
The People's Front on Wednesday decided to build a consensus for the ensuing Presidential election and agreed to pre-empt any attempt by the BJP to install a 'hardline pro-RSS candidate' as the new President of the country.
After a two-and-a-half-hour meeting the Front authorised its convenor and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet to hold talks with all other parties to try build up a consensus.
Surjeet, flanked by representatives of all the members of the Front, said, "We will try for a consensus."
"And what should be done in this regard, Comrade Surjeet and I would sit and decide," Mulayam Singh said, while dismissing questions that any particular name figured in the discussions.
Mulayam Singh also did not rule out the possibility of discussing the issue with both the Congress and the BJP-led NDA allies.
But, he said that from the government's side it should be an initiative from the prime minister who has been authorised by the NDA to build up a consensus.
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