A day after National Democratic Alliance convener George Fernandes told newspersons that it may field P A Sangma against United Progressive Alliance nominee Somnath Chatterjee for the post of the Lok Sabha speaker, the Bharatiya Janata Party asserted that the final decision is yet to be taken.
"Our position is that the Congress should evolve consensus on the name of Somnath Chatterjee by discussing the issue with the NDA. This is the tradition," said party spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Chatterjee belongs to the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Sangma to the Nationalist Trinamool Congress.
The BJP Parliamentary Party is likely to discuss this issue when it meets in the Parliament Annexe on Tuesday June 1 at 11.30am.
Constituents of the NDA would meet later in the evening to take the final decision on the issue.
"We do not have the numbers but in case it becomes inevitable, then we would field Sangma. But there is still some time and the Congress can make initiate efforts to evolve a consensus," said another BJP leader.
Sangma was in his parliamentary constituency Tura in Meghalaya and could not be contacted for his comments. "He would be back on Monday night and be available to the media on Tuesday," an official at his residence in Delhi told rediff.com.
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