Two bitter pills? Mamata may back Ansari for VP

Will Mamata Banerjee’s new found adherence to coalition politics also ensure her support for Hamid Ansari, who will be running for a second term as vice president of India? CNN IBN quoted unnamed sources as saying that the West Bengal Chief Minister had decided to back Ansari’s candidature in the vice presidential election, despite saying yesterday that the party is still to take a decision on whom to back in the poll. [caption id=“attachment_381269” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Will Mamata support Ansari? Reuters.[/caption] Ansari, who will be completing his first term as Vice President filed his nomination papers in New Delhi on Wednesday. Initially said to have been in the running for the Presidential post, Ansari lost out to veteran Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee. Banerjee was initially said to have been opposed to Ansari’s nomination since the Left parties had supported his candidature.  However, she her decision to back Mukherjee’s nomination came despite the CPM saying that they would support the former Finance Minister. The BJP has already nominated Jaswant Singh to contest against Ansari, as a candidate representing the NDA alliance. In an apparent thawing of relations between Banerjee and the Congress, a TMC MP will also attend a lunch being hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi ahead of the presidential poll. The lunch meeting is to be attended by all the UPA alliems and despite initial reports suggesting that the TMC would not be represented, the party has decided to send a representative.