A day after the ruling United Progressive Alliance-Left combine announced its presidential nominee, the Bharatiya Janata Party was on Friday tightlipped on who its candidate would be while claiming that it was reaching out to non-National Democratic Alliance groups for support for its yet-to-be-announced nominee.

"We have started approaching non-NDA groups also to evolve a larger consensus for the candidate," senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told PTI.

He, however, remained tight-lipped as to who would be the NDA candidate. He also denied having stated that Bhairon Singh Shekhawat would be NDA's candidate.

"I have been wrongly quoted on that. It will be known only on June 18," Naqvi said.

There have been enough hints that Shekhawat wants to contest as an independent candidate, backed by NDA. A decision in this regard is expected to be taken on Monday.

The BJP leader maintained it "would not be proper" to reveal which non-NDA groups are being reached out, but said the response has been "positive".

"We met Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh, for instance. We met others also. It would not be proper to take all names at this stage, but all I would say their response is positive," Naqvi said.

"We hope to get their support because they are also annoyed with the fact that the UPA did not take them into confidence while selecting a candidate," Naqvi added.

To a question about the reported differences NDA ally Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav had with Shekhawat, Naqvi said they have been ironed out.