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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
With President K R Narayanan declining the Opposition offer for a second term, the Congress Working Committee on Tuesday said it would take a final decision on its presidential candidate on Wednesday.
Party spokesman S Jaipal Reddy said senior Congress leaders Dr Manmohan Singh and Natwar Singh, who met the President, were told by him that he would not be a candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections.
Reddy said the Congress Working Committee would meet on Wednesday to decide if it would field a new candidate or accept the NDA candidate -- A P J Abdul Kalam.
The President's decision has thrown the Congress and the Left parties into a complete disarray.
The People's Front -- comprising the Left parties and the Samajwadi Party -- too stands divided with the SP coming out openly in Kalam's support.
Coverage of the election for the 11th President of India
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