We have not rejected any name: Samajwadi Party

New Delhi, June 14 (IANS) Samajwadi Party (SP) Thursday said it has not rejected any name for the post of president and consultations were on.

"We have not rejected any name. Consultation is going on and we have to have a consensus on one name because there can be only one president," Samajwadi Party leader Shahid Siddiqui told a news channel.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, after meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi Wednesday evening, had revealed that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was the first choice of the Congress for the presidency and Vice President Hamid Ansari was the second.

Banerjee and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav later met Wednesday evening and stunned everyone by announcing three new names, of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee as their choices for the presidency.

Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh Thursday said there would be a contest if the Congress goes ahead with the name of Mukherjee.

"Today, I can visualize a contest if Congress goes ahead with either Pranab babu or Hamid Ansari. Mamata Banerjee, our chief, and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh, they may go with A.P.J. Abdul Kalam," Ghosh told a news channel.

--Indo-Asian news Service