Third Front to name Prez candidate on June 18

Asserting that she was not backing Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as an independent candidate for the presidential polls, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo on Tuesday said the newly-formed front of regional parties would meet in Chennai on June 18 to decide about their strategy.

Denying media reports that she was working for a consensus on putting up Shekhawat as an independent and had spoken to the chief ministers of Bihar, Assam and Orissa, and was in touch with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, in a statement Jayalalithaa dismissed the reports as 'baseless and untrue.'

AIADMK was now part of a separate front, which included many other parties and the leaders of these parties recently met in Hyderabad, where no decision was taken with regard to the front's stand on the presidential election, she said.

'It was clearly stated that the Hyderabad conclave was only a preliminary meeting and decisions would be taken at the next meeting in Chennai. Nothing has happened to alter the status quo in the interim period,' she said.

The next meeting of the front would be held here on June 18, in which Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bangarappa and Amar Singh (Samjawadi Party), Chandrababu Naidu (TDP), Babulal Marandi (Jharkand Vikas Morcha), Om Prakash Chautala (INLD), Vaiko (MDMK) and P C Thomas (Kerala Congress (J)) would participate, she said.

Certain important decision would be taken in this conclave, she said.