New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been asked by her party to pick its candidate for the presidential election, to be held in July.At a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee moved a resolution authorising Mrs Gandhi to select the candidate.

MrsGandhi said last month that no names had been finalized, but it's widely accepted that the Congress' front-runners are Mr Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari. Mrs Gandhi is also chairperson of the Congress-led UPA; her emissaries have been consulting other members of the coalition like Sharad Pawar and Mamata Banerjee for their feedback.

The opposition BJP has said it would like to field its own candidate ; the Presidential election will be a major prestige point ahead of the general elections in 2014. The system of proportional representation makes it key for the Congress to have its allies on board. The votes of all MPs are at par with the elected members of all state assemblies. This gives regional parties major clout in the poll.


Mr Pawar and Ms Banerjee have both said they will wait for a formal announcement of the Congress's candidate before deciding on their support. Mr Pawar has said he will not back his own partyman, PA Sagma, who is being endorsed by the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Odisha. Ms Banerjee is likely to base her support on whether the centre agrees to a moratorium on thousands of crores that her West Bengal government owes as interest on loans.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, who provides external support to the UPA, has indicated his preference for Mr Mukherjee as the coalition's candidate - he has repeatedly said that he would like to see a politician as President.