New Delhi: The Opposition on Wednesday decided to hear the Government proposal on getting consensus of candidate for presidential poll.The three-member committee of BJP will meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday to hold consultation on presidential elections. The committee will also meet CPI(M) General Secretary SitaramYechury on the same day over the issue.
The Opposition took the decision at its meeting on Wednesday after Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu, who is one of the members of the committee, spoke to BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra and Praful Patel of NCP to evolve a broad consensus on presidential nominee.

Recently, BJP President Amit Shah had constituted a committee comprising Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, ArunJaitley and Venkaiah Naidu to hold consultations with the NDA allies and the opposition parties.

Meanwhile opposition leaders met at Parliament House to chalk out joint strategy on the presidential polls. Talking to reporters, Congress leader GhulamNabi Azad said, there was no discussion on any name in the meeting and they will meet again after seeing the name and proposal of government in this regard. He said the opposition was united on the issue.

CPI(M) leader SitaramYechury, RJD Chief Lalu Prasad, RamgopalYadav of Samajwadi Party, JD(U) leader SharadYadav and TMC leader Derek O'Brien were among those who attended the meeting.

Earlier in the day, the process of filing nominations for the Presidential poll began with the Election Commission issuing a notification. The nomination process will continue till the 28th of this month. If needed, the elections will take place on the 17th of next month. Elected members of the LokSabha and the RajyaSabha and elected members of state legislative assemblies are the electors.

The term of President Pranab Mukherjee comes to an end on the 24th of next month.Seven nominations were filed on Wednesday on the first day of filing nominations for the Presidential poll.