Presidential polls: No support for BJP until candidate name suggested, says Yechury

New Delhi: CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday ruled out the possibility of offering support to the Bhratiya Janata Party until a name is being suggested by the latter.

"They (BJP leaders) did not propose any name," Yechury said after meeting Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu.

He further reiterated his party's stand that a candidate with "impeccable secular credentials" should be the next president.

Singh, Naidu, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley are part of a BJP panel to work out a consensus on the presidential nominee.

Singh and Naidu also met Congress president Sonia Gandhi earlier on Friday.

Stepping out from the nearly 30-minute meeting, Yechury told media that the BJP panel would meet them again. Asked about the government's efforts to develop a consensus on the presidential candidate, he said there has to be some name (proposed) to arrive at a consensus.