Mamata says she is firm on Kalam for President

Shortly after Congress-led United Progressive Alliance announced Pranab Mukherjee as its presidential candidate, an unfazed Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that her party remained firm on the candidature of APJ Abdul Kalam.

"We are firm on the candidature of Kalam. He is the fittest candidate. We are not shifting from our stand of what we have announced earlier," Banerjee told PTI at the state secretariat in Kolkata.

"He is a man of high stature in India and most respected nationally and internationally," she said.

On the Samajwadi Party extending support to Pranab Mukherjee, Banerjee said she had no communication from the party. "They did not talk to me. How do we know if there is no talk?"