President poll: Kalam the real choice of UPA allies?

New Delhi: Former president APJ Abdul Kalam's name is once again doing the rounds. Sources have told CNN-IBN that he is the preferred choice of the UPA allies. In fact, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav reportedly spoke to Kalam before proposing his name.

Sources say that the BJP and NDA may back him as well. But Mamata and Mulayam have made it clear that Kalam should be seen as their independent candidate and not of the NDA. The Congress, though, is unlikely to agree.

So far, there hasn't been any official reaction from the Congress to the names proposed by Mamata and Mulayam, which are those of Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh and former lok sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

However, sources say that there could be a UPA meeting called in a couple of days. NCP chief Sharad Pawar has already called for fresh talks within the UPA. There are signs that the next few days are going to be extremely challenging for the Congress and it's president, Sonia Gandhi.

Mamata and Mulayam are also likely to be in touch with NCP chief Sharad Pawar, AIADMK’s J Jayalalithaa and BJD's Naveen Patnaik on the issue.